New York City hotels that house immigrants have raised more than $1 billion in taxpayer funds since converting their buildings into migrant shelters.
New York City spends an average of $156 per room per night on hotel rooms housing immigrants, with some rooms costing the city more than $300 per night, according to a report by the New York Post.
According to the report, the city has spent about $4.88 billion on the immigration crisis in recent years, with $1.98 million of that going to housing. While some of the nearly $2 billion spent on housing has gone to city shelters, about 80 percent of the shelters the city uses are motels or inns, according to internal documents obtained by the New York Post.
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Asylum seekers line up outside the historic Roosevelt Hotel, converted into a city-run shelter for newly arrived immigrant families, in New York City. (Selcuk Acar/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
According to the report, the city has closed multimillion-dollar deals with several New York City hotels, including a $5.13 million-a-month deal with the Row NYC hotel in Midtown Manhattan. Meanwhile, the Crowne Plaza JFK in South Jamaica, Queens, has closed a $2 million-a-month deal for the use of its 335 rooms.
The trend has not gone unnoticed by business owners in the hotel area, who have complained that buildings once filled with customers flooding the local area with business have now become filled with immigrants.
“Our taxes are used to pay for immigrants, and where are we supposed to get revenue from?” William Shandler, manager of the Iron Bar, located across from the Row hotel, told the New York Post. “How could we function as a business?”
Crime scene tape surrounds the area of a stabbing in front of the Roosevelt Hotel, which serves as a shelter for migrants, in New York City. (Peter Gerber)
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However, the city has continued to sign contracts with properties to house the influx of migrants. In September, the city extended its contract with the Hotel Association of New York City (HANYC) for three years and $1.3 billion. In January, New York City signed a $76.69 million deal with HANYC to provide “last resort” shelter for migrants at 15 hotels in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx through July.
Those deals have crushed taxpayers, a local watchdog said.
“The immigration crisis is a blow to state and local finances, and housing is the sector where taxpayers are bleeding the most,” Ken Girardin, research director at the Empire Center for Public Policy, a watchdog, told the New York Post.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams (AP Photo/Peter K. Afriyie, File)
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The trend has also been denounced by Republican Councilwoman Joann Ariola, who argued that the hotels were built for tourism and “not to house the masses of people who cross our borders every day.”
“These places were supposed to boost the economy of this city, but instead they have become a net drain and are costing us enormously,” Ariola said.
The mayor's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
