New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) is set to funnel billions in local taxpayer money to the powerful hotel industry, providing more than 140 hotels with multi-million contracts to house newly arrived border crossers and illegal aliens. As a result, the city is considering cutting public services like meals for senior citizens and library hours for New Yorkers.
Since the spring of last year, more than 74,000 border crossers and illegal aliens have arrived in New York City — most of which are being given free hotel rooms to stay, paid for by local taxpayers, under a plan imposed by Adams.
The hotel industry, hit hard by the Chinese coronavirus pandemic in 2020, is profiting millions, potentially billions, from the lucrative migrant hotel contracts, Bloomberg reports. In many cases, records show that New Yorkers are being charged daily hotel rates that are well above the market rate.
Take the Holiday Inn in Manhattan’s Financial District, for example, which is raking in $190 a night per room given to newly arrived migrants — a 73 percent increase in its rate. This hotel, alone, is expected to rake in $10.5 million under its contract with the city.
The Row Hotel in Times Square, housing hundreds of migrants, is set to pull in almost $100 million from taxpayers via its city contract.
As a result, Adams has suggested that New Yorkers will see their public services cut, Bloomberg reports:
The cost of housing migrants is so extraordinary — an estimated $4.3 billion between April of 2022 and July 2024 — that Mayor Adams says he must cut city services to afford it. [Emphasis added]
To manage those expenses, Adams says the city is planning to trim services such as library hours, meals for senior citizens, re-entry programming for Rikers Island prisoners, and free, full-day care for three-year-olds. Last month, Adams also sought to unwind the city’s right to shelter, which entitles the migrants to housing within 24 hours of their arrival. [Emphasis added]
…
Data provided by the comptroller’s office shows 37 hotels contracting directly with the city’s Department of Homeless Services are being paid daily rates ranging from $55 a day to $385 per day, sometimes far in excess of what the hotel rooms might otherwise rent for. [Emphasis added]
Other hotels across New York City are likewise raking in enormous rates to put migrants up in their rooms, paid for by taxpayers, a breakdown of the data shows:
- The Holiday Inn Express in Brooklyn charging $311 a night
- The Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown charging $200 a night
- The Artel 535 boutique hotel in Brooklyn charging $143 a night
- The Night Hotel in Times Square charging $230 a night
Overall, New Yorkers are paying $256 every day, on average, to provide free hotel rooms to each migrant family. This is vastly more than what the city pays, $136 to $188, to provide housing for homeless New Yorkers.
Whistleblowers, Breitbart News reported, have said that migrant hotels across New York City have descended into a “free for all” where border crossers and illegal aliens staying in rooms, free of charge, do drugs and drink alcohol through the night.
“People [are] drinking aguardiente and smoking weed outside all night since we can’t bring that in,” one whistleblower said. “The police have come and pushed them out some nights so now they gather at the corners.”
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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