By Forum Staff
Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday released a competitive Request for Proposals (RFP) for companies and organizations to provide shelter and shelter-related services in response to the asylum seeker crisis.
The RFP seeks to solicit a range of vendors to support the next phase of the “Asylee Flex” program, ensuring continuity of operations and enabling the city to find additional efficiencies and reduce costs while diversifying vendors and subcontractors through the competitive bidding process.
The administration has already saved nearly $2 billion in asylum seeker spending by helping put migrants on a path to self-sufficiency with intensified case management while still reducing the household per-diem costs of providing care.
“Since April 2022, more than 200,000 migrants and asylum seekers have come to our city, seeking a better life for themselves and their loved ones and needing our care,” said Mayor Adams. “We’ve put care and compassion first throughout our response, and, as a result, no families with children have been forced to sleep on our streets — an incredible accomplishment and a testament to the hardworking public servants, contractors, and community-based organizations that are on the ground managing this crisis. We have also been managing the fiscal impact of this crisis, having already achieved nearly $2 billion in cost savings thanks to the creative thinking of our dedicated workforce. The RFP we’re putting out today will help us find even more savings, making sure we get the most out of every taxpayer dollar.”
Since May 2023, the city augmented its response to the influx of arriving asylum seekers with the addition of the “Asylee Flex” program, which quickly added scalable, cost-effective, humanitarian site inventory and services across multiple hotels in New York City and certain counties upstate. The program has been operating for 10 months and currently serves thousands of migrants across 26 hotel sites, including approximately 2,400 migrants across 13 sites in New York City, and 1,600 migrants in 13 sites located upstate. Most of the current program participants are families with children who are enrolled in local school districts and connected with local resources.
The new RFP requires potential vendors to submit executive summaries of their qualifications, detailed plans of action, references, and budget proposals, including detailed pricing information on staff members, shelter locations, and operations. It also includes a 30 percent minority- and women-owned business enterprise subcontractor utilization goal. The proposals will be evaluated for cost, experience, proposed approach, and organizational capacity, and awarded contracts will be for up to one year in length.
The selected vendor, or vendors, will be expected to provide services at existing sites, and possibly additional sites as directed by the city. The scope of work includes managing relationships with hotels, engaging with and maintaining open lines of communication with key stakeholders, as well as providing shelter, food, housekeeping, security, case management, laundry, and the coordination of additional services with no additional fee including legal, reconnection, travel, education, and donations.
Since this asylum seeker humanitarian crisis began, New York City has taken fast and urgent action — caring for more than 203,000 migrants and asylum seekers and opening more than 200 emergency shelters to provide a roof over their heads.
