New Yorkers, grappling with an unprecedented influx of migrants, are set to spend $20 million a month to shelter asylum-seekers at a facility on Randall’s Island, mere miles from Manhattan’s towering skyscrapers. This translates to an astounding $10,000 per migrant monthly if the facility, which can accommodate up to 2,000 individuals, reaches full capacity.
The facility on Randall’s Island is but one of four state-sponsored migrant housing facilities, a clear indication of the magnitude of the crisis. The relentless surge of migrants into the Big Apple has brought New York City, according to Mayor Eric Adams (D), to its “breaking point.”
Adams recently unveiled the staggering costs that the city will likely bear over the next three years — an estimated $12 billion. “With more than 57,300 individuals currently in our care on an average night,” Mayor Adams remarked, “it amounts to $9.8 million a day, almost $300 million a month and nearly $3.6 billion a year.”
Randall’s Island migrant shelter to cost NY taxpayers $20M a month — or $10G for every migrant: source https://t.co/aHl0L2nN3v pic.twitter.com/6GxcgaoUmZ
— New York Post (@nypost) August 13, 2023
The numbers tell a somber tale: since the spring of 2022, approximately 100,000 asylum seekers have streamed into New York City, with over 57,000 currently housed across 198 emergency shelters throughout the city’s five boroughs. Such an immense influx has taken its toll on official shelters and spilled onto Manhattan’s streets. In the last two weeks, scores of migrants found themselves sleeping outside the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown.
While the state and city administration scramble to address the crisis, repurposing certain Randall’s Island soccer fields as part of the housing solution has elicited significant backlash, especially from the local sports community. Vilda Vera Mayuga, head of the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, has been vocal in her opposition, even circulating petitions to prevent the use of youth soccer fields for the expansive shelter.
Meanwhile, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) has proposed to use Floyd Bennett Field, a former military airfield in Brooklyn, as an additional state-funded shelter. However, White House officials reportedly declined to green-light the plan.
As New York taxpayers shoulder the heavy burden of these initiatives, many are compelled to ask if there might be a more efficient, sustainable solution to the crisis. The conservative viewpoint often emphasizes fiscal responsibility, and in this scenario, the question that looms large is whether such astronomical sums, while addressing immediate needs, are in the best long-term interests of both the migrants and the taxpayers.
