They need more room at the inn.
New York City’s use of hotels as emergency shelters to house migrants will continue for the foreseeable future, The Post has learned, as the Department of Homeless Services is seeking a contract with hotels to provide a total of 14,000 rooms to shelter migrants at least through next year.
The city projects that spending on housing for migrants over the past two years and this fiscal year combined will surpass a staggering $2.3 billion — much of it on rent paid to hotels in the Big Apple.
About 150 hotels are currently sheltering migrants and total spending on migrant services over three years will hit $5.76 billion.
“The taxpayers can’t pay for this indefinitely,” said Nicole Gelinas, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute think tank.
With Mayor Eric Adams under criminal indictment and his administration in disarray, Gelinas said Gov. Kathy Hochul “should take control” of managing the migrant crisis in the city.
She said it’s totally unacceptable that so many hotels in Manhattan’s Midtown and downtown tourists district have been converted to migrant shelters instead of serving the tourism industry.
“We should stop using hotels as shelters by the end of the year,” Gelinas said.
The city has three existing contracts with the New York City Hotel Association to work with its extensive network of hotels to voluntarily provide shelter space.
The total cost to house migrants per room per night is $352 per night, according to city data .
There are financial benefits — particularly to hotels in the outer boroughs that are not in tourist districts and have lower occupancy rates. The city will fill all the rooms and pay a hefty sum to do so, providing a reliable revenue stream.
“The New York City Department of Homeless Services is seeking to continue the City Sanctuary Facility program by procuring a vendor who can assist in acquiring the use of large scale commercial hotels and hotel management services to help address the current emergency,” the agency said in its new solicitation.
The hotel association will apply to oversee the new shelter contract, said its president and CEO, Vijay Dandapani.
“We will be filling in the RFP [request for proposal],” he said.
Dandapani said the hotel association’s foundation is paid approximately $100,000 per month to administer three of its existing contracts with the city.
“We have five full time employees specifically for fulfilling the contractual obligations, besides work done by regular HANYC staff for the contract, in addition to their normal duties,” he said.
The city Asylum Funding Tracker projects that migrant shelter costs will drop from $1.51 billion last year to $233 million in the current fiscal year ending June 30, 2025.
Adams has said that 30-day shelter limits for individuals and 60 days for families has helped reduce the migrant population in the city’s shelter system.
