NYC gets $30.5M from first round of federal migrant aid — ‘woefully insufficient,’ says Adams aide; some asylum seekers will be sent upstate

New York City will receive just $30.5 million from the federal government’s first round of migrant crisis aid — less than what’s being earmarked for a couple of Catholic Charities chapters in Texas and California, funding documents released Friday show.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency award for the city is a drop in the bucket of the $1.4 billion that Mayor Adams’ administration estimates it will have spent by July 1 on housing, feeding and providing services for the more than 60,000 mostly Latin American migrants who’ve arrived in New York since last spring.

“This is both disappointing and woefully insufficient for a city that has carried the cost of sheltering, feeding, and supporting more than 60,000 asylum seekers in the last year,” Adams spokesman Fabien Levy said.

“New Yorkers have stepped up tremendously throughout this crisis and we look forward to working closely with our congressional delegation to remedy this serious mistake,” Levy said.

On the heels of the FEMA funding news, Adams’ administration announced it is renting two hotels in upstate Orange and Rockland Counties, where it will house 300 male asylum seekers in order to alleviate pressure on the city’s overcrowded shelter and emergency migrant housing systems.

In a statement, the mayor said municipal workers will be posted at the hotels in Orangeburg and Orange Lake in order to provide the same services offered at the Humanitarian Emergency Relief and Response Centers that the administration operates for migrants in the city. The transfers will be voluntary, and migrants will only be able to stay at the upstate hotels for four months at a time, city officials said.

Adams blamed the need for shipping migrants upstate on a lack of help from the federal government.

“New York City has been left without the necessary support to manage this crisis. With a vacuum of leadership, we are now being forced to undertake our own decompression strategy,” he said.

The paltry FEMA allocation for the city comes from a $350 million program set up to reimburse jurisdictions and non-profits across the country that have helped accommodate the waves of migrants crossing into the U.S. from the southern border.

Though the Big Apple is believed to have accommodated far more migrants than any other U.S. city, its award only clocks in at third place of all jurisdictions in line for cash from the FEMA program, funding documents show.

Above the city on the FEMA aid ladder are Catholic Charities of San Diego, which is getting $33.6 million, and Catholic Charities of San Antonio, Texas, which is getting $39.7 million, according to the documents.

The city of El Paso, Texas, which is where many migrants first arrive when they cross into the U.S. from Mexico, is set for $22.1 million from the FEMA program. However, the county of El Paso will get a separate allocation of $17.4 million, putting the total award for the border jurisdiction at $39.5 million — also more than New York City.

In an application filed last month, Adams’ administration asked FEMA to funnel the entire $350 million allocation into New York City’s government coffers, arguing its need for relief surpasses all other jurisdictions in the country. The administration’s application also asked for an extra $350 million from unspecified sources.

Once the $350 million has been disbursed, FEMA is expected to get to work at setting up an application portal where U.S. cities can apply for a separate $450 million pot of migrant-related relief.

Beyond the feds, Adams’ administration has received a commitment from Gov. Hochul’s administration for $1 billion in migrant-related relief.

But the mayor has made clear he does not think that’s nearly enough as his administration estimates it will shell out $4.3 billion migrant costs by July 2024.

New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the top Democrat in the House, did not blast FEMA on Friday, but signaled he agrees with the mayor that much more is needed.

“The $30.5 million we worked to provide New York City in this first round of funding is a step in the right direction and will help the City continue to aid the more than 50,000 asylum seekers who have sought refuge,” Jeffries said in a statement.

This is a breaking story. Please check back for updates.