New York City has signed a new $1 billion deal with hotels to continue giving emergency shelter to migrants and homeless people. The city says this move is still needed, even though officials claim the migrant crisis is slowing down. The agreement allows hotel rooms to be used as shelters through June 2026.
This no-bid contract means the city didn’t allow other hotel groups to compete. Instead, the deal was made directly with the Hotel Association of New York City Foundation. The group will help the city find hotels willing to provide rooms in exchange for rent payments. According to the city, this helps house about 86,000 people, including many asylum seekers.
Critics say using hotels for shelter is no longer an emergency solution. Nicole Gelinas from the Manhattan Institute said the deal turns a short-term plan into a long-term one and makes hotel rooms even more expensive for tourists. She also believes the city should have opened the contract to competition to save money.
The nightly cost of sheltering each migrant is about $352, including $130 for the hotel room. The hotel association said they only take a small fee for handling the arrangement and began helping during the COVID-19 pandemic when hotels were first used as shelters.
Some people are asking:
Why is New York still spending so much on hotels for migrants if the crisis is getting better?
City officials say even though the number of new migrants has dropped, the number of people needing shelter is still very high — more than 95,000 right now, compared to 61,000 before the pandemic.
The city has already spent $3.12 billion since 2022 to house migrants, mostly in hotel rooms. In January 2024, the shelter population hit over 140,000 — more than double the number from two years earlier. Under New York’s “right to shelter” policy, the city must provide shelter to anyone who needs it.
At one point, about 150 hotels were being used to house migrants, including the Roosevelt Hotel, which became a symbol of the crisis. The hotel also served as a migrant intake center near popular tourist spots. Large tent shelters were also built on Randall’s Island and Floyd Bennett Field, but are now being closed.
Recently, President Trump’s return to office and stricter immigration rules have slowed the number of new arrivals. As fewer people come in, some hotels are going back to serving tourists again, especially near Times Square and JFK Airport.
However, there has been tension over this shelter plan. In February, the Trump administration pulled back $80.5 million in federal aid, claiming the money was being used on “luxury hotels” for migrants. Mayor Eric Adams sued the government, denying the hotels were luxury and saying the city was just trying to meet basic needs. The federal government had offered only $12.50 per night in support for each hotel room.
Despite the high cost, the Adams administration says sheltering people is still necessary. While the crisis may be slowing, the need remains huge, and New York is still trying to manage it.