NYC’s Humanitarian Crisis Response

Since Spring of 2022, tens of thousands of asylum seekers — adults as well as families with children — have fled dire conditions in their home countries and crossed the United States’ southern border in search of safety and a better life. The Adams Administration quickly mobilized multiple city agencies to provide shelter, food, health care, education in culturally appropriate languages, access to legal information, and other critical services. However, as the surge of asylum seekers has continued, costs have grown drastically, straining the city’s already over-taxed shelter system, social services, and other resources to the breaking point. To address this humanitarian crisis, Mayor Adams declared a state of emergency in October of 2022.

The Administration has released The Road Forward: A Blueprint to Address New York City’s Response to the Asylum Seeker Crisis that guides the city’s response to the humanitarian crisis. The city’s approach includes a new Office of Asylum Seeker Operations (OASO) to oversee ongoing and future activities, and allow existing city agencies to refocus on their core missions. The OASO will coordinate between agencies, make sure that agencies have the resources they need, and manage our advocacy to the state and federal governments.

City Fiscal Year	Forecast Cost ($B)	Formula*
2025	$4.75	(36,939 households) * ($352/night average cost) * (365 days)

* Households and nightly costs are a nightly average over the course of the city’s fiscal year. The nightly average cost of $352 reflects the estimated per diem rate for FY 2025 as of the FY 2025 Preliminary Plan

FY25 - FY26 All Sources

City Fiscal Year	Budgeted Funding ($M)
2025	$4,373
2026	$4,000

Budgeted Funding by Source

	FY25 ($M)	FY26 ($M)
City Funds	$2,996	$2,941
State Funds	$1,317	$1,000
Federal Funds	$60	$59
Total	$4,373	$4,000

The Administration has mobilized an all-of-city response that includes the work of more than ten agencies across five service categories. The cost by both agency and service type is noted below. These charts will be updated monthly, after all relevant data has been collected.

As of October 31, 2024:

By Agency

NYC Agency	FY2023 Total	FY2024 Total	FY2025 Total	Grand Total
H+H	$469 Million	$1.53 Billion	$446 Million	$2.45 Billion
DHS	$764 Million	$1.19 Billion	$374 Million	$2.33 Billion
HPD	$33 Million	$413 Million	$150 Million	$597 Million
DCAS	$38 Million	$293 Million	$138 Million	$470 Million
NYCEM	$88 Million	$111 Million	$23 Million	$222 Million
OTI	$30 Million	$91 Million	$34 Million	$155 Million
Law	-	$33 Million	$11 Million	$44 Million
DSS	$15 Million	$19 Million	$6 Million	$40 Million
NYPD	$1 Million	$25 Million	$7 Million	$33 Million
DOHMH	$6 Million	$10 Million	$0.8 Million	$17 Million
ACS	-	$6 Million	$2 Million	$8 Million
DOI	-	$4 Million	$0.9 Million	$5 Million
HRO	-	$5 Million	$0.1 Million	$5 Million
DDC	$1 Million	$3 Million	$5 Thousand	$4 Million
Parks	$0.4 Million	$2 Million	$0.3 Million	$3 Million
DEP	$0.3 Million	$2 Million	$0.4 Million	$3 Million
DYCD	$0.5 Million	$2 Million	$0.5 Million	$3 Million
FDNY	$0.8 Million	$1 Million	$0.4 Million	$2 Million
DOE	-	$0.5 Million	$0.3 Million	$0.8 Million
DOB	$7 Thousand	$0.5 Million	$87 Thousand	$0.6 Million
Total	$1.45 Billion	$3.75 Billion	$1.19 Billion	$6.39 Billion

By Work Type

Nature of Services	FY2023 Total	FY2024 Total	FY2025 Total	Grand Total
Services and Supplies	$569 Million	$1.54 Billion	$523 Million	$2.64 Billion
House, Rent, Initial Outfitting	$568 Million	$1.52 Billion	$454 Million	$2.54 Billion
IT, Administrative Costs, and Other	$149 Million	$347 Million	$103 Million	$599 Million
Food	$106 Million	$259 Million	$90 Million	$455 Million
Medical	$57 Million	$0.08 Billion	$24 Million	$157 Million
Total	$1.45 Billion	$3.75 Billion	$1.19 Billion	$6.39 Billion

Note: Totals may not sum together due to rounding

⁽¹⁾ Includes actual spending of $1 billion in FY23 and $5.76 billion budgeted over FY24 and FY25.

⁽²⁾ New York State has committed $4.3 billion in funding for asylum seeker costs statewide in State Fiscal Years 2023-24 and 2024-25. The direct commitment to the City is an estimated $3.1 billion. From this the city has received $750 million in advance payments. The state has committed 176 million for legal services, case management, and infectious disease testing and treatment. On top of these funds, the state has agreed to reimburse the city for the costs of humanitarian relief centers located at Floyd Bennett Field, Randall's Island, and Creedmoor Psychiatric Center. This includes funding for up to 1,000 beds at Creedmoor and up to 2,000 beds at Randall's Island, with the estimated costs of one year of operations totaling $124 million and $248 million, respectively. The State has also committed to reimbursing the city for the costs of providing up to 2,000 beds at Floyd Bennett Field, where operational costs are an estimated $280 million annually. In addition, the State has made in-kind contributions to the city, separate from the items above, such as the use of the National Guard and rent payments to the National Park Service for the use of Floyd Bennett Field.

⁽³⁾ This represents total funding allocated by the federal government. To date the city has received $75 million of these funds.