(The Center Square) — New York City is closing several migrant “welcome” centers after Gov. Kathy Hochul turned down a request to carve out another $1 billion in the state budget to cover the costs.
In a statement, Mayor Eric Adams’ administration attributed the closures of the facilities — one in the Bronx, one on the city’s West Side, and another in Times Square — to the lack of new state funding for migrant housing and other costs.
Hochul rejected Adams’ request for another $1 billion in the recently signed $253 billion state budget to cover the Big Apple’s migrant costs.
“Unfortunately, the state recently decided not to allocate any new funding to New York City for asylum-seeker-related costs,” an Adams spokesperson said in a statement. “We are disappointed to have to make the difficult decision to close a resource center that has allowed us to provide assistance on over 109,000 applications.”
New York City has spent an estimated $8 billion on housing and other costs for more than 230,000 migrants who have arrived since early 2022, with about 37,000 individuals still under its care, according to the Adams administration.
However, a Hochul spokesperson defended the decision to trim the funding, pointing to declining numbers of migrants arriving in the city amid an overall drop in border crossings following President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration.
“The number of weekly migrant arrivals has declined by 95% and the city has more than $2 billion from the state that they have yet to draw from, which is why this year’s budget did not include additional funding,” the Hochul administration said in a statement. “The governor will continue partnering with City Hall to address their responsibility to provide shelter to new arrivals.”
The Trump administration announced in April that it was clawing back $188 million in federal grants to New York City to cover migrant costs. The funding included a $59 million grant and $21.5 million for migrant housing awarded during former President Joe Biden’s administration, but the city filed a lawsuit alleging that the Trump administration “illegally” pulled back the money.
In February, Adams announced that the city was closing the Asylum Seeker Arrival Center at New York’s iconic Roosevelt Hotel in midtown Manhattan, which was a target of criticism from Elon Musk and the Trump administration, who criticized the city for housing migrants in “luxury” hotels at the taxpayers’ expense.