Posted on August 19, 2024

NYC Taxpayers Have Spent $308M on Ongoing Migrant Crisis Since July

Carl Campanile and Craig McCarthy, New York Post, August 15, 2024

New York City taxpayers have spent $308 million on migrants since July 1 — bringing the total tab for the ongoing immigration crisis to nearly $5.5 billion, according to new numbers released by the city Thursday.

The figures — which were updated by the Adams administration to include spending since the start of this fiscal year — are hundreds of millions of dollars more than the $5 billion dollar price tab included in earlier city tallies first reported by the Post Tuesday.

In addition to the spending since July, the asylum-seeker funding tracker also adjusted the spending from the prior two fiscal years combined from $4.88 billion to nearly $5.2 billion — for a total of totalling $5.46 billion over the duration of the crisis.

The spending since July includes $112 million on housing/shelter, $137 million for social services and supplies, $29 million on IT and administrative costs, $23 million for food and $7 million for health care.

Meanwhile, state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli issued a report Thursday saying the migrant crisis continues to be a drain on Big Apple coffers.

“The city continues to bear the majority of the burden for the significant cost of helping asylum seekers,” DiNapoli said.

DiNapoli said it’s strong tax collections from business and tourism– more than anything — that’s kept the city treasury afloat post-pandemic while grappling with the migrant crisis.

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City Hall estimates it will absorb 69% of the costs to care for migrants, with the state 30% and the federal government, just 1% over the next few years.

The border-migrant crisis has been a raging issue in the race for the White House between former Republican President Joe Biden and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, her party’s nominee after replacing President Biden.

Gotham has assisted and housed more than 212,000 migrants since the spring of 2022, and nearly 64,000 are still in the city’s shelter and social service system.

Adam’s budget projects outlays of $ 4.7 billion to aid migrants the current fiscal year, $4 billion next year, $3 billion in 2027 and $850 million in 2028.

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