Photo Courtesy of Citizens for a Better Maspeth
According to Comptroller Stringer’s analysis, over 12 months, spending on hotel rooms for homeless New Yorkers grew from $52,000 to $400,000 per day.
By Michael V. Cusenza
The albatross of the administration, the bane of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s political existence is also shaking down John and Jane Taxpayer to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars — EVERY DAY.
The number of homeless New Yorkers living in commercial hotels has spiked dramatically since November 2015, with the City now spending an unprecedented $400,000 per day on hotel rooms – a 669 percent rise over 12 months, according to a report released last week by City Comptroller Scott Stringer.
“Department of Homeless Services Hotel Summary 11/1/15-10/31/16” shows the average daily rate per hotel room rising substantially from roughly $160 to over $193 per night – with more than 800 room bookings for $400 or above, including some that cost taxpayers $629 per night.
“I am calling on the City to develop a comprehensive, transparent roadmap to solve this extraordinary crisis. The City doesn’t have one – and it needs one urgently because we are undoubtedly sliding backwards and our homeless children deserve more. This crisis has been mounting, and our homeless families depend on us. To help our most vulnerable New Yorkers get back on their feet, to help families thrive, and to ensure we are spending taxpayer dollars efficiently, we need a plan from the City – and we need it now,” Stringer said. “These costs are absolutely alarming. While I know that progress will take time, we cannot continue to accept the status quo. The City promised to end its reliance on both cluster sites and hotels – and we are no doubt trending in the wrong direction. The City is not moving the needle on this extraordinary problem, and that’s why we continue to speak out.”
The comptroller’s latest analysis shows that between Nov. 1, 2015 and Oct. 31, 2016:
- The number of hotel rooms booked by DHS jumped from 324 to 2,069 – an increase of 540 percent.
- DHS made a total of 425,000 hotel-room bookings at a cost of more than $72.9 million.
- The estimated number of homeless New Yorkers in commercial hotels skyrocketed from 696 to 5,881 individuals – a jump of more than 745 percent.
- The average daily rate DHS paid for a commercial hotel room grew from $163 per night in the month of November 2015 to $194 in the month of October 2016, an increase of nearly 20 percent.
- The most expensive rooms cost $629 per night. Thirty of them were booked for two days in September 2016. Over the course of the year, 815 bookings were made for $400 per night or higher.
De Blasio spokeswoman Aja Worthy-Davis said, “There’s no doubt that hotels are not ideal for homeless New Yorkers, but until we get citywide acceptance that more shelters are needed, hotels remain the only short-term option for keeping many New Yorkers off the streets.”
Earlier this month, Stringer sent a letter to DHS Commissioner Steven Banks outlining significant concerns with continued hotel use.
“The inconsistencies between the administration’s stated policy goals and recent actions call into question whether the commitments to phase out the cluster program and end the practice of placing families in commercial hotel units will be met,” Stringer wrote in the Dec. 6 missive.
