A hotel in one of New York City’s trendiest neighborhoods has been quietly converted into emergency housing for immigrants for the past few months.
Mayor Eric Adams’ administration recently awarded a $12.3 million emergency grant to a nonprofit social services provider that operates the City’s Shelter for Families with Children at 235 Meeker Avenue in Williamsburg. A contract was signed. Hotel Le Jolie.
The Department of Homeless Services has contracted with Brooklyn-based St. Paul’s to manage the facility.
Hotel Le Jolie was temporarily converted into a shelter for immigrant families last year.
“They’re letting St. Paul’s take over operations. Functionally, nothing changes,” a person familiar with shelter operations said over the weekend.
The official said DHS is hiring temporary staff on-site and hopes the nonprofit will better serve immigrant families.
When asked if there were any rooms available for tourists, the representative who answered the phone at the site claimed that the hotel was closed for “renovation work.”
Last November, a visitor on the hotel’s Facebook page asked, “Is Hotel Le Jolie closed or still open?”
There was no reply.
Hotel staff’s last response to a TripAdvisor review of the 55-room boutique property was posted last April.
As the shelter system collapses, cities are getting creative in finding housing for the influx of immigrants.
Last August, the Adams administration even opened a shelter in the popular McCarren Park on the border of Williamsburg and Greenpoint.
When asked about the new contract for migrants staying at Hotel Le Jolie, a Department of Homeless Services spokesperson said: “This is not a new site and has been open for quite some time.”
The newspaper has contacted Hotel Le Jolie management and St. Paul’s for comment.
The immigration crisis has been a boon for Big Apple hotels, which are still suffering from a drop in tourism due to the coronavirus pandemic.
More than 100 hotels have agreed to convert into emergency shelters for migrant families and individuals who have flooded into the city from the southern border, with the government paying for the rooms.
In January, the Adams administration signed a new $76.69 million emergency contract with the New York City Hotel Association to provide “last resort” shelter for immigrant families.
Under the deal, 15 hotels in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx will offer blocks of rooms to asylum-seeking families for up to 28 days under a “voucher program” through July.
The Post reported last September that the city had forked out a staggering $1.3 billion, nearly five times the original $275 million contract price, just to pay the rent on a vast network of hotels that had been converted into emergency shelters. It was reported that the contract with the hotel association was extended for three years for a sum of money. .
Adams is trying to curb soaring immigration costs by imposing 30-day and 60-day shelter stay limits for individuals and families, respectively.
Since spring 2022, nearly 200,000 immigrants have arrived in the Big Apple, overwhelming the city’s shelter population, forcing DHS to rely on hotels, Floyd Bennett Field, Creedmoor Psychiatric Hospital, and Kennedy Airport. A large-scale tent city was forced to be built on the grounds of the city.
New York City spends an average of $387 a day to house an immigrant family in taxpayer-funded shelters, according to recent data from City Hall.
City Hall has claimed that the cost of fighting the migrant crisis could reach $10 billion by next year.
The recently approved state budget provides $2.4 billion to cities to cover immigration costs while the federal government provides little financial support.
