New York City Mayor Eric Adams sought more help from the Biden administration to cover the expenses for housing thousands of migrants in the city, which is expected to surpass $12 billion.
“Our compassion may be limitless, but our resources are not. This is the budgetary reality we are facing if we don’t get the additional support we need,” Adams said during an address that sought to put the onus on the Biden administration to help relieve his city from the growing financial burden.
“New Yorkers did not create an international humanitarian crisis. But our city’s residents have been left to deal with this crisis almost entirely on our own,” the mayor said in an address Wednesday morning.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security recently dispatched a small team to New York City to help determine how the federal government should respond.
The federal government has so far promised the city $160 million to help — although the city's budget director, Jacques Jiha, told reporters that the city has yet to receive a “single dollar” of that money. A city spokesperson later clarified that requests for that money have been made but the delay could be because of routine bureaucratic reasons.
Since the spring of 2022, nearly 100,000 migrants have arrived in New York City seeking shelter.
With the city's shelters near capacity and more migrants arriving, the crisis is unlikely to abate anytime soon. As of Sunday, the city said it was housing more than 82,000 people, including nearly 30,000 children.
The Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless, among the mayor’s most vociferous critics, echoed the mayor’s plea for help.
“This is a moment that requires the full resources and authority of government from all levels, and the city should not have to shoulder the response without meaningful assistance from both the Biden and Hochul administrations,” the groups said in a statement.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul does not dispute the city needs more money, saying “it is far more expensive than anyone had imagined.”
She said she expects to ask lawmakers in Albany to provide another $1 billion to help the city, on top of the $1 billion already allocated.
