New York Post report New York City hotels will receive more than $1 billion in tax dollars to convert their buildings into migrant shelters. Of the 193 migrant shelters currently in operation in the city, 153, or about 80 percent, are motels, hotels or inns.
A May analysis found that the city is paying an average of $156 per hotel room to house migrants. Comptroller Tom DiNapoli saidBut these places are $300 per room per night Since migrants first began pouring into the city in spring 2022.
“These places were meant to boost the city’s economy, but instead have become a net loss and a huge expense.”
This has not only increased the price of hotel rooms for tourists, but also significantly changed the Airbnb market.
The report found that through May 31, the city had spent about $4.88 billion on the migrant crisis, with $1.98 billion of that going solely to housing migrants, including hotels and motels as well as tent cities on Randalls Island and Floyd Bennett Field.
Iron Bar manager William Shandler said he and other businesses in the city are being squeezed by both sides: The city has turned many of the luxury hotels that once accommodated customers into shelters for migrants, which isn’t helping their businesses survive.
“Our taxes are going to pay for immigration, so where are we going to get the money?” Chandler said. “How are we going to function as a business?”
Coster report In November 2023, it was announced that the city’s hotels had cut up to 16,000 rooms to accommodate migrants. Furthermore, the migrant crisis in the city appears to be having a negative impact on the hotel business itself.
CoStar said:
With over 16,000 rooms offline, short-term rental inventory reduced and pipeline numbers declining, New York City’s hotel inventory is undergoing significant change, which could impact future room rate growth as operators adjust to the new reality of less competition.
City Council Member Joan Arriola told the Post that the hotels are being built for tourism “not to protect the tens of thousands of people who cross the border every day.”
“These places were supposed to boost the city’s economy, but instead they have become a net loss and a huge expense,” she added.
While some argue that welcoming immigrants would be good for the city, many New Yorkers seem uneasy about the move, and it’s unclear what the city plans to do to address those concerns.
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