City Hall officials say NYC has trimmed migrant-related costs by $1.7B

The city is on track to trim projected spending on migrants by $1.7 billion through next June, according to Mayor Eric Adams’ administration, which attributed the savings to its policies like capping most migrants’ stays to 30 or 60 days.

The new cost projection, shared with the City Council in briefings Monday and Tuesday, brings the total for caring and sheltering migrants to about $10.5 billion through the end of June 2024, down from an earlier estimate of $12.3 billion. That sum includes $1.45 billion in spending from the prior fiscal year, which ended in June 2023.

Budget-watchers disputed whether the administration’s policies were the reason behind the cost savings, contending the city has repeatedly overestimated or inflated the cost of providing for the migrants, mostly asylum-seekers. More than 180,000 migrants have flowed into the city in an influx that began in April 2022.

Jacques Jiha, the mayor’s budget director, testified in a hearing that the city’s efforts to reduce the number of migrants staying in shelters — including by implementing controversial 30- and 60- day limits on shelter stays — played a major role in cutting costs. The shelter population has decreased in recent months, from about 69,000 at the start of the year to under 65,000, Jiha said.

“It’s a big piece of the strategy that we have in terms of driving down the population,” Jiha said of the stay limits in a Monday hearing. “Because if you don’t drive down the population, I don’t know how we’re going to sustain this in the long run.”

Molly Schaeffer, the director of the Office of Asylum Seeker Operations, touted the projected cost savings as a success in another hearing on Tuesday.

“The proof of our progress is in the results,” Schaeffer said, pointing to the $1.7 billion savings. “And we were able to do that without compromising services.”

But City…