NYC plans to rent another 5,000 hotel rooms to house migrants amid shelter crisis
So many Latin American migrants are arriving in the city on a weekly basis that Mayor Adams’ administration plans to turn upward of 5,000 hotel rooms into emergency housing for them as the homeless shelter system remains overcrowded.
The plan, which comes on top of nearly 1,000 hotel rooms that the city is already renting for the same purpose, was spelled out in a solicitation notice released by the Department of Social Services on Wednesday.
The notice did not specify a price tag for the procurement. A Social Services spokeswoman said the effort is part of a funding allocation made possible by an Aug. 2 emergency declaration issued by Adams and Social Services Commissioner Gary Jenkins in response to the crisis playing out in city homeless shelters due to the recent influx of migrants.
“Over the past few weeks, we have been working around the clock to step up and welcome asylum-seekers with open arms,” the spokeswoman said in an email. “As we previously announced, we’ve been procuring additional emergency shelter to serve this population, and this (notice) is part of that effort.”
FILE - Mayor New York City Adams greets asylum seekers arriving in New York City from Texas. (Diane Bondareff/Mayoral Photo Office/)
Under the proposed contract, one or several vendors would receive city funding to procure and service the hotel rooms rented for migrant adults and children.
The Adams administration estimates that more than 4,000 Central and South Americans have arrived in the city since late May after crossing the U.S. southern border in hopes of applying for asylum. Dozens more migrants are arriving every week, and many are fleeing violence and persecution in their home countries.
The migrants are being sent to New York by federal authorities, and Adams has pointed fingers at Republican leaders in Texas and Arizona for refusing to house them in their states.
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Most of the desperate travelers arriving in the city have been placed in homeless shelters.
But due to the large number of homeless New Yorkers sleeping in shelters every night, the city has not been able to find beds for all the migrants in a timely fashion. Last month, at least four Latin American families were as a result forced to sleep on the floor of an intake center in the Bronx in violation of a local law that requires the city to provide same-day placement for adults with young children who show up at shelters by 10 p.m.
New York City’s Department of Investigation has launched a probe into Jenkins over allegations that he sought to cover up the fact that the administration broke the so-called “Right to Shelter” law by not finding beds for the four families. The Legal Aid Society, which represents homeless shelter residents, has alleged that far more than four migrant families have gone without timely placement in violation of the Right to Shelter law.
