The absurd $1.4 billion bill for migrant hotels was intended to force politicians to abolish the “right to shelter.”
Stunning news that the city will shell out $1.4 billion about local hotels for migrants over three years should be of great concern.
The public must see how every penny of it is spent and apply maximum pressure to contain the costs – especially by abolishing the insane, untenable “right to shelter” for every person in the world.
This outrageous sum of $1.4 billion is intended to cover migrant rental fees at more than 100 city hotels and does not even include the cost of city facilities or other locations where “asylum seekers” are housed.
Yes, it’s basically President Joe Biden’s disastrous open borders policy that is costing cities like New York billions, even though the government won’t lift a finger to help.
Still, it’s beyond crazy that Gotham has to pay such exorbitant sums while signing contracts on a “contingency” basis – that is, without bidding or checking before the contract is signed.
Note that the city has reached an agreement with its main hotel association, whose 31,000-worker union was among the first to endorse Adams for mayor in 2021.
With long-term planning, this is not necessarily an emergency: As Councilwoman Julie Won (D-Queens) put it, “the regular arrival of asylum seekers” is “no longer unpredictable.”
Furthermore, as Nicole Gelinas notes, 10 agencies signed 194 “emergency” contracts worth $5.1 billion for migrant services, essentially without checks and balances to control waste and fraud.
However, the city’s perverse “right to shelter” rule is clearly the main reason why the cost per migrant is far higher in New York than in other cities.
But City Comptroller Brad Lander, who is allegedly to actually care about the municipal bottom line contradicts Limits on Staying in Shelters, Adams & Co. Insist “Working Harder to House People Before We Give Up on Them.”
He and the City Council should join Adams’ efforts to make right-to-housing regulations sensible, not advocate for longer stays.
Hizzoner’s lawyers were in court Tuesday seeking to limit those stays and exclude migrants from the rule; Not much happened as the judge ultimately withdrew.
But as a Staten Island judge noted in a separate case Tuesday, the rule is an “anachronistic relic.” He ordered the city to stop using a former Catholic school to house 300 migrants.
Biden clearly won’t secure the border to stop the waves of illegal migrants coming into New York.
This makes it all the more important for local politicians to do everything they can to contain costs and prevent the crisis, as Adams warns, from “destroying” the city.
