City Comptroller Brad Lander is demanding that Mayor Eric Adams release more detailed data on the migrant population, nearly a month after City Hall abruptly stopped providing breakdowns of where the migrants were staying across different types of shelters.
In a letter to the mayor sent this week, Lander pressed the city to provide his office with a weekly report, beginning next Monday, that shows the number of migrants in city-run shelters, emergency sites, so-called “respite” centers intended for temporary stay, and hotels the city is paying for outside the five boroughs.
“This data is critical to performing our office’s charter-mandated oversight duties and ensuring the public understands the magnitude of this crisis, its cost and the scale of the necessary response,” the comptroller wrote.
Lander described the city’s current reporting practice of providing rounded estimates of migrants without more details around where they were staying as “wholly insufficient.”
The battle over data and transparency comes as Adams tries to alter “right-to-shelter” rules that have governed the city’s response to homelessness for nearly 40 years. Lander’s call is also part of growing criticism over the mayor’s handling of the migrant arrivals. In a recent interview with The City, Adrienne Adams, the City Council speaker, described the administration as being in “panic mode” and failing to collaborate with other lawmakers.
Assemblymember Harvey Epstein told Gothamist he was turned away by officials on Sunday when he tried to visit a migrant respite center in the East Village. Epstein said he was blocked from viewing a food distribution area even though he had identified himself as an elected official.
“It was a surprising experience,” Epstein said.
The lawmaker said he wanted to get a better understanding of what the migrants needed. He added that he had informed City Hall of his planned visit.
“I just wanted to see what is happening in my…
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