NYC slated to get first $8M from feds for migrant crisis
Help is flowing.
New York will receive the first federal dollars to help pay for costs incurred during the ongoing immigrant crisis, but the amount awarded is less than 1% of City Hall’s $1 billion total request, The Post has learned.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency confirmed this week that the Big Apple was finally awarded $7.89 million on Dec. 22 to help cover some of the initial costs from the summer’s massive influx of immigrants.
“This is the first time we’ve received funding from FEMA for an immigrant crisis,” a city hall spokesman told The Post late Tuesday. “[T]its funding is an initial allocation from the city’s application in November, and we hope to receive further awards. NYC applied for $1 billion which is the total projected cost for the city’s fiscal year.”
The money comes as a result of a last-minute increase in federal funds appropriated for FEMA’s 2022 Emergency Food and Shelter program.
A total of $75 million was added to the program, and the New York City award was the single largest awarded by the fund in this competition.
Local governments like New York are dependent on the cash to help fund agencies and nonprofits that provide services and shelter to recent arrivals from the southern border, many of whom are seeking asylum after fleeing violence and countries poverty stricken like Venezuela.
The city initially sought $1 billion from the feds.
New York will receive the first federal dollars to help pay for costs incurred during the ongoing immigrant crisis.
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The $7.89 million will be used to reimburse the city for crisis expenses before Oct. 1, according to City Hall.
Officials say they’re holding out hope that the city will get a second — and much bigger — boost in the coming weeks thanks to new funding put in place by Congress in a recently passed $1.7 trillion spending bill. This omnibus measure is separate from FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter program.
As of December 26, the Municipality has registered 34,100 migrants in the five municipalities – with over 23,200 of them currently in shelters. There are currently 65 emergency shelters and four larger humanitarian emergency response and assistance centres, known as “mega-shelters”.
So far, the City has estimated that it has spent approximately $250 million to cope with the increase in immigration.
That figure was included in a letter from Mayor Eric Adams to City Council President Adrienne Adams this week, in which Hizzoner asked all 51 council members to give up half of their district grant funding to pay the expenses. of immigrants – a council request was furiously rejected.
The day before the letter was sent, Mayor Adams warned that unless he received significant help from state and federal officials, “every service” in the city would be affected.
At the time, the mayor was looking ahead to a possible repeal of the Trump-era Title 42 health policy — which the Supreme Court ordered to stay in place Tuesday as it heard arguments from Republican-led states fighting to keep the rule on books.
While the city has requested an initial $1 billion in aid, City Comptroller Brad Lander has said the price tag could triple if the crisis continues — potentially reaching $3 billion over three years.
