For the past year, Mayor Eric Adams has been urgently requesting federal financial assistance to address the ongoing issue of sheltering asylum seekers in New York City. Currently, asylum seekers are being housed primarily in hotels at an average cost of $383 per household per night. The city spends an alarming $300 million per month to accommodate 57,300 asylum seekers (25,600 households). To mitigate this substantial burden, NYC asked FEMA for $650 million in shelter assistance but only received $135.1 million. In response, the Biden administration provided limited support, offering 11 federal properties, some DHS staff, and recommendations to improve the city’s operations related to migrants.
Despite the efforts of Mayor Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul, they are unable to prevent asylum seekers from arriving in New York, and it is likely that more will continue to come in the coming years. A more practical approach, rather than relying on funding from Washington, is to establish coordinated, cost-effective shelters outside of hotels throughout the state.
To provide some context, New York City’s projected expenditure for this fiscal year is approximately $4.7 billion, which is almost as much as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) projected expenditures for 2022 – $5.6 billion. With 102.5 million forcibly displaced people under UNHCR’s mandate, this translates to an average of $54.70 per displaced person per year. Interestingly, Berlin and Warsaw have managed to shelter more asylum seekers in a shorter period of time than much larger New York City, and they did not rely on hotels. For instance, between August 2015 and March 2016, Berlin received over 90,000 asylum seekers, primarily Syrians, and provided housing in the closed Tempelhof airport’s hangars and longer-term housing constructed from used shipping containers. In the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Berlin accommodated more than 267,000 Ukrainian refugees in four months, utilizing Tempelhof airport, container villages, and Tegel airport, with only a fraction housed in hotels. Warsaw, on the other hand, received an estimated 800,000 Ukrainian refugees, with the majority eventually moving elsewhere, but a significant portion finding shelter with homeowners who received government compensation.
Mayor Adams has floated the idea of compensating homeowners in New York City for housing asylum seekers but has yet to take action on this proposal. Considering the city’s population decline of 468,000 between 2020 and 2022, it is likely that there are numerous vacant bedrooms available. Additionally, empty office spaces could be repurposed for housing or donated to serve as facilities for processing incoming asylum seekers, providing legal consultations, conducting English classes, or even offering daycare services.
It is unlikely that President Joe Biden will respond positively to Mayor Adams’ request to declare the arrival of asylum seekers in New York City as a national emergency. Historically, all presidents since Jimmy Carter have disregarded similar requests. As Carter himself acknowledged, his 1980 federal disaster declaration during the Mariel boatlift, which involved 125,000 Cuban asylum seekers being relocated to South Florida by FEMA, contributed to then-Governor Bill Clinton losing his reelection and Carter’s own defeat in the subsequent election. Therefore, instead of waiting in vain for federal assistance, New York should follow the examples set by Berlin and Warsaw, finding affordable alternatives to hotel accommodations and expanding the capacity of lower-cost shelters.
Rey Koslowski, a professor of political science at the University at Albany and the author of “Migrants and Citizens,” highlights these challenges and potential solutions in his work.
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