New York Budgets $6.75 million for Asylum Seekers

The New York City Human Resources Administration, in collaboration with the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, is seeking a vendor to provide service operations and case management at its NYC Asylum Seeker Service Navigation Center and satellite sites throughout the city.

The satellite locations will be near “City Sanctuary Shelter” locations in neighborhoods throughout all five boroughs where the asylum seeker who recently arrived from Texas as well as immigrant New Yorkers commonly reside.

The city intends to award a $6.75 million contract to a single nonprofit, which will most likely subcontract work to other entities.

Three criteria will be used to evaluate applicants: experience, proposed approach, and organizational capability/ability to mobilize immediately.

According to the announcement, the nonprofit that receives the grant will be responsible for recruiting volunteers, managing clients, disseminating public and educational information, and distributing supplies and other resources.

The city announced the potential grant after Texas Governor Greg Abbott began busing migrants from the Texas-Mexico border to New York City.

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“New York City is the ideal destination for these migrants, who can receive the abundance of city services and housing that Mayor Eric Adams has boasted about within the sanctuary city,” said Abbott earlier this month.

During an emergency City Council hearing on Aug. 9th, NYC Department of Social Services Commissioner Gary Jenkins stated that the city had opened 11 hotels to accommodate the influx of migrants.

“The influx of asylum seekers definitely put a strain on the system, which is why we had to pivot and open emergency hotels. We’ve opened 11 so far,” Jenkins said. “We have a legal and moral obligation to provide temporary housing to those who come to us.”

According to Jenkins, there were approximately 17,000 people in the city’s emergency shelters as of August 9, including 8,800 children.

In Texas, roughly 5,000 people illegally enter and are apprehended every day, with well over 100,000 passing through its five sectors alone last month.

Abbott has invited Mayor Adams to visit the Texas-Mexico border to witness firsthand the chaos that has erupted there. Adams has not publicly responded to the invitation, instead blaming Abbott for the city’s “humanitarian crisis.”