NYC Mayor Seeking Federal Aid to Offset Costs for Housing Migrants

NEW YORK (NEWSnet/AP) — With thousands of migrants still arriving in New York City, Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday renewed his appeal to the federal government to help the city avert a budgetary crisis as expenses relating to such aid add up.
The cost is now projected at $12.2 billion by the end of next year because of the influx of people coming from the southern U.S. border, then end up in New York seeking temporary care and shelter.
“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 meant to get attention from the Biden administration to help his city with the increasing 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.
Since the spring of 2022, nearly 100,000 migrants have arrived in New York City seeking shelter. With the city's shelters near capacity, 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 U.S. Department of Homeland Security recently dispatched a team to New York City to help determine how the federal government should respond.
The federal government has so far promised the city $140 million to help, although the city has yet to receive any 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.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul also is expected to ask lawmakers in Albany to provide another $1 billion to help the city, on top of the $1 billion already allocated.
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