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

FY24 - FY25 All Sources

City Fiscal Year	Budgeted Funding ($B)
2024	$3.76
2025	$4.75

Budgeted Funding by Source

	FY24 ($M)	FY25 ($M)
City Funds	$2,287	$3,436
State Funds	$1,312	$1,312
Federal Funds	$157	-
Total	$3,756	$4,748

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 May 31, 2024:

By Agency

NYC Agency	FY23 Total	FY24 YTD	Grand Total
H+H	$469 Million	$1.44 Billion	$1.91 Billion
DHS	$764 Million	$1.04 Billion	$1.81 Billion
HPD	$33 Million	$374 Million	$408 Million
DCAS	$38 Million	$264 Million	$302 Million
NYCEM	$88 Million	$126 Million	$214 Million
OTI	$30 Million	$88 Million	$118 Million
DSS	$15 Million	$18 Million	$33 Million
Law	-	$28 Million	$28 Million
NYPD	$1 Million	$20 Million	$21 Million
DOHMH	$6 Million	$9 Million	$14 Million
ACS	-	$5 Million	$5 Million
HRO	$0.1 Million	$5 Million	$5 Million
DDC	$1 Million	$3 Million	$4 Million
Parks	$0.4 Million	$2 Million	$3 Million
DYDC	$0.5 Million	$2 Million	$2 Million
DEP	$0.3 Million	$2 Million	$2 Million
FDNY	$0.8 Million	$1 Million	$2 Million
DOB	$7 Thousand	$0.5 Million	$0.5 Million
DOE	-	$0.4 Million	$0.4 Million
Total	$1.45 Billion	$3.43 Billion	$4.88 Billion

By Work Type

Nature of Services	FY23 Total ($M)	FY24 YTD	Grand Total
House, Rent, Initial Outfitting	$570	$1.41 Billion	$1.98 Billion
Services and Supplies	$567	$1.37 Billion	$1.94 Billion
IT, Administrative Costs, and Other	$149	$339 Million	$488 Million
Food	$106	$239 Million	$345 Million
Medical	$57	$67 Million	$124 Million
Total	$1.45 Billion	$3.43 Billion	$4.88 Billion

Note: Totals may not sum together due to rounding

⁽¹⁾ Includes actual spending of $1.45 billion in FY23 and $8.5 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 $3.1 billion. From this the city has received $500 million in advance payments. The state has also provided $10 million for legal services and $20 million for case management and committed an additional $38 million for legal services and casework. 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 for one year, where operational costs are an estimated $280 million annually. The State has also 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 $49 million of these funds.