Comptroller Lander Unveils City’s Cost and Contracts on Asylum Seeker Services

 

Lander urges City to ramp up efforts to get New Yorkers out of shelter and support new arrivals to apply for work authorization

In a new analysis, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander detailed the City’s budget and contracts on services to date for asylum seekers who have arrived in large numbers over the past 11 months. At a City Council hearing, Lander will call on City officials to focus on scaling up efforts to transition New Yorkers out of shelter and into permanent housing, as well as coordinating efforts to help new arrivals apply for asylum and work authorization. The report provides the first transparent accounting of known contracts and makes new detailed data available for download.

“The City understandably focused the overwhelming share of its effort scaling up its shelter capacity since asylum seeking families began arriving in droves last spring,” said Comptroller Brad Lander. “As time goes on, we are reaching a critical juncture where the City must pivot to focusing on transitioning households, both long-time New Yorkers and new arrivals, out of shelter and into permanent housing. Immigrants have long brought economic and cultural vitality to New York City and to continue that tradition, the City must take steps to create pathways to economic stability.”

The new analysis, Accounting for Asylum Seekers, provides the first line-by-line breakdown of contracts for the provision of shelter and services for new arrivals. City agencies utilized both existing contracts and emergency procurement to meet these new needs. The Comptroller’s office gathered information from publicly available sources, in addition to information from City Hall, to provide an overview of the contracts and costs known thus far. Of the 83 known new contracts for providing services to asylum seekers, the Comptroller’s office has registered 29, 4 are pending review, and the remainder have yet to be submitted.

Summary of Known Contracts by Contracting Agency

City Agency	Number of Known Contracts	Number of Registered Contracts	Final Contract Amount
DCAS	4	2	$30,000,000
DDC	1	1	$669,350
DHS	55	20	$447,482,971
DSS	3	2	$14,950,000
H+H	13	0	$62,800,000
NYCEM	5	4	$138,615,100
OTI	2	0	N/A
Totals	83	29	$694,517,421

The Office of Management and Budget anticipates spending over $4 billion during Fiscal Years 2023 and 2024. The Comptroller’s office estimates that 99% of the expenses so far are going to the costs of providing shelter and related services, including food. The per diem cost of the newly-contracted emergency hotels, including rent, is approximately $339 for family shelters, considerably higher than the average cost per family shelter day reported in the January Mayor’s Management Report of $186. The per diem cost of the HERRCs is anticipated to be even higher. Prior to the arrival of large numbers of migrant families, the average stay in City-run shelters reached 500 days.

Comptroller Lander recommended a two-pronged approach to transitioning people out of shelter and into permanent housing and helping asylum seekers apply for status and work authorization, arguing that both are needed to provide economic stability for families and reduce the City’s shelter costs.

1. Rapidly scale up immigration and employment services, through a mix of pro bono legal representation and pro se assistance from volunteers to help migrants apply for asylum within the one year deadline from arrival and apply to receive work authorization six months later.
2. Expand rental assistance options and eligibility, including reforms to CityFHEPS, passage and implementation of the proposed New York State Housing Access Voucher Program, enforcement of source of income discrimination laws, additional support to long-time shelter residents, and utilizing warehoused units to help tens of thousands of people move into permanent housing.

Since last spring, nearly 50,000 people seeking asylum have arrived in New York City. For the first time at such a large scale, many of them sought shelter, pursuant to New York State’s unique legal “right to shelter.” As of March 6, the City is providing shelter to over 30,900 migrants. Ninety-two emergency hotel shelters, managed by the Department of Homeless Services (DHS), have been opened since April, making space for 21,745 asylum seekers in DHS shelters. New York City Health + Hospitals (H+H) also manages seven Humanitarian Emergency Referral and Response Centers (HERRCs) that currently provide temporary housing and services to 9,203 individuals.

The full analysis, recommendations, and list of known contracts is available here. A detailed breakdown of the contracts is available for download here.