New York received the first federal funds to help pay for costs incurred during the ongoing immigration crisis, but the amount awarded is less than 1% of the total $1 billion request made by the City Council, according to The New York Post.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) confirmed that NYC finally received $7.89 million on December 22 to help cover some of its initial expenses from the massive influx of immigrants over the summer.
“This is the first time we have received funds from FEMA for the immigration crisis,” a spokesman for the City Council said this week. “This funding is an initial allocation from the city’s November application, and we look forward to more. NYC requested $1 billion, which is the total projected cost for the city’s fiscal year.”
The money comes from a last-minute increase in federal funds allocated to FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter program for 2022. A total of $75 million dollars was added to the national program and the New York City award was the largest delivered from the fund in this round.
Local governments like New York depend on the amount of money to help fund agencies and non-profit organizations that provide services and housing to new arrivals from the southern border, most entering the long process of waiting for asylum after fleeing from violence and poverty in their countries.
The $7.89 million will be used to reimburse the city for crisis expenses by October 1, according to the City Council.
Officials say they are hopeful the city will receive a second and much larger amount of money in the coming weeks thanks to new funds set aside by Congress in a recently passed $1.7 trillion spending bill. . That blanket measure is separate from FEMA’s emergency food and shelter program.
As of December 26, the NYC Mayor’s Office has registered 34,100 migrants in the five boroughs, of which more than 23,200 are currently in shelters. There are currently 65 operational emergency shelters and four larger Emergency Humanitarian Aid and Response Centers, known as “mega-shelters”. So far the City has estimated spending approximately $250 million for all of them.
At least two asylum seekers have died in the last quarter in city shelters: a Colombian mother in September and a young Venezuelan this month.
Mayor Eric Adams declared a “state of emergency” in October over the immigration crisis in NYC, asking for financial and legislative assistance from the federal government and state legislators. “It’s burning through our budget,” he said.
“The number of people in the main shelter system in New York City has exceeded 61,000, approaching a record” for the city, he summarized then. The New York Times. That number includes immigrants and local homeless people. Assistance to immigrants translated into about $1.6 million a day spent by the city government, he estimated in September. BloombergNews.
In recent months, New York City has seen an avalanche of migrants sent by bus from the border state of Texas, most of them Venezuelans fleeing the humanitarian crisis in their country. Those who arrive do not have a work permit, something that Mayor Adams has attached to his federal requirements, to avoid risks of homelessness, depression and crime.
Two weeks ago the NYC mayor announced $2.1 million to expand aid plans for immigrants arriving this year, amid a national political battle between Democrats and Republicans.
- Chaos and confusion: New York immigration courts and lawyers collapsed before massive arrival of asylum seekers