NEW YORK: Based on the current trend of asylum seekers’ influx in New York, the city will require approximately $12 billion over three fiscal years (FY23, FY24, and FY25) without policy changes.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams today laid out updated figures the asylum seeker crisis will cost the city over the next two fiscal years if swift action is not taken by the state and federal governments to further help manage this emergency.
The city has already spent $1.45 billion in Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 to provide shelter, food, and services to tens of thousands of asylum seekers, but — as the city nears a total of 100,000 asylum seekers arriving since spring of 2022 — without further support, new cost estimates based on current trends show that the city has the potential to spend upwards of $12 billion over three fiscal years (FY23, FY24, and FY25) without policy changes, as per details available on NYC Government website.
“Immigration is the New York story. It is the American story. But as I declared nearly a year ago, we are facing an unprecedented state of emergency due to the asylum seeker crisis,” said Mayor Adams.
“Since last year, nearly 100,000 asylum seekers have arrived in our city asking for shelter, and we are past our breaking point. New York City has been left to pick up the pieces of a broken immigration system — one that is projected to cost our city $12 billion over the course of three fiscal years without policy changes and further support from the state and federal governments. 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. Without immediate assistance from our state and federal partners, we will continue to see heartbreaking scenes like the one outside The Roosevelt last week. 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. Our city will remain a beacon for all who come to our shores, because that is the New York City way; it is time for that to be the American way as well.”
“Like so many who have arrived on our shores, asylum seekers come here in search of the American Dream,” said First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright. “Our city has made herculean efforts to provide shelter, food, clothing, schooling, and other necessities to those in our care so they can pursue that dream. But the events last week have made painfully clear that we need help, and we need it now. We are urging the state and federal governments to act so we can continue to live up to the words inscribed at the base of the Statue of Liberty, upholding our status as a city where all our huddled masses can breathe free.”
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