NYC, State Agency Hope to Resettle the Migrants in Upstate Hotels

New York City officials will seek to relocate the remaining 1,800 migrants staying in upstate hotels in permanent housing by the end of the year.

But the city maintains that it may need to continue using the upstate hotels because its shelter system remains over capacity, an indication that its temporary housing plan will for now remain in perpetuity.

The city plans to connect the migrants with permanent housing, including through voluntary state-funded programs that require a person to be eligible for public assistance — the types of services that many migrants initially lacked when they were bused by New York City to makeshift shelters at hotels.

For those who do not find permanent housing, whether an individual or a family, they could be offered the opportunity to return to New York City and go through the process of re-entering the shelter program.

The plan was disclosed to the Times Union by the office of Mayor Eric Adams in response to a series of questions last week on what has been an indefinite program of temporarily housing the migrants upstate. New York City recently solicited nonprofits to carry on the work at the hotels for at least an additional 12 months.

A spokesman for the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance confirmed there are plans to place all families in residences, although the agency official did not specify a timeline.

“The expectation is that each household currently placed in a hotel outside New York City will be provided support to secure permanent housing outside of (New York City) if that is their preference,” spokesman Darren O’Sullivan said in a statement.

New York City’s legal team has for the past year ardently defended its work in litigation in federal and state courts, across more than a dozen cases. The city has asserted it has the legal right to house migrants outside of its municipal boundaries in hotels without the consent of local governments.

The Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, listed as a nominal defendant in some of the litigation, has not sought to penalize New York City for improperly housing migrants upstate.

The protracted litigation has brought attention to whether local governments can assert various rights over what happens within their boundaries due to the actions of New York City, which has asserted its relocation sheltering system is grounded in state authority.

In most cases where a ruling has been issued, the courts have favored the rights of local governments, most of which seek to block the relocation of migrants in their community on the grounds that it may violate local zoning laws, local executive orders and the state’s social services laws involving the need to have consent to relocate homeless people in another municipality.

New York City’s plans attempt to juggle its long-sought legal argument that the temporary housing upstate is the only way to handle the migrant crisis while seeking to permanently resettle families to get them out of the shelter system.

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The city’s legal argument has been based on the theory that it can relocate migrants outside of its municipal boundaries and to hotels elsewhere as a last resort, based on rules from the state Office of Temporary and Disability and Assistance.

The argument also hinges on an executive order issued by Gov. Kathy Hochul regarding the migrant crisis and an FAQ issued by the state agency in May 2023 that avoids answering whether the hotels would constitute shelters. If the hotels qualify, legally, as shelters, it would trigger a set of rules for the services provided within those hotels and the need to notify and receive consent from local governments about the relocation of individuals.

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About $11 million — or 1 percent of the state’s $1 billion spent on the migrant crisis — has been paid for relocation programming as of the end of June, according to records with the state comptroller’s office. An additional $15 million has been spent on legal services.

But the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance said Friday that 415 families have been relocated to permanent housing outside of New York City, including 114 in Albany County. An additional 807 families have expressed interest and are eligible for the relocation program.

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