>G'Mornin' Anons… Another Day at the Office.
GMF
NYC hotels that converted into migrant shelters set to rake in over $1B in taxpayer funds: internal docs
By Matthew Sedacca and
Rich Calder
Published July 7, 2024, 6:09 a.m. E
https://nypost.com/2024/07/07/us-news/hotel-make-up-vast-majority-of-migrant-shelters-raking-in-millions/
Hotels are set to easily rake in well over a billion dollars in taxpayer funds for turning their buildings into migrant shelters.
Of the 193 migrant shelters being used by the city to house 65,300 individuals, 153 — or nearly 80% — are hotels, motels or inns, according to an internal document obtained by The Post.
New York City is spending, on average, $160 per hotel room to house migrants, officials said, although some operators reportedly have banked more than $300 a night per room since migrants first began being bussed up from the southern border in spring 2022. The taxpayer tab for daily migrant shelter costs overall is $352 per household, according to the city.
Pedestrians pass in front of the Row Hotel 3
Through May 31, of the estimated $4.88 billion spent toward the migrant crisis, $1.98 billion went toward housing. Michael Nagle
Through May 31, of the estimated $4.88 billion spent on the migrant crisis, $1.98 billion went toward housing, which includes the costs for hotels but also other shelters such as the sprawling tent cities at Floyd Bennett Field and Randall’s Island, according to the Office of Management and Budget.
Among the more staggering migrant shelter contracts is a $5.13 million-a-month deal between the 1,331-room Row NYC hotel in Midtown Manhattan and the city’s Health + Hospitals agency, according to its June board of directors report. The Crowne Plaza JFK in South Jamaica, Queens, meanwhile, landed a $2 million a month deal for use of its 335 rooms, the report noted.
William Shandler, a manager at Iron Bar located across from the Row hotel, said he and other businesses in the neighborhood were getting “hit at both ends” by the city’s decision to house migrants in luxury hotels, which previously had been filled with customers.
“Our taxes are being used to pay for the migrants, and where are we supposed to make revenue?” said Shandler. How as a business could we function?”
Hotels have taken more than 16,000 rooms off the market to house migrants, according to a November report by CoStar.
See Also
Man pointing toward migrant shelter, woman speaking toward camera while standing on street, migrants sitting and standing on the sidewalk outside of a shelter
Quality of life tanking in NYC communities with most migrant shelters: residents
And that’s a problem, according to Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens), who said hotels were built for tourism — “not for sheltering the masses of people pouring over our borders every day.”
“These locations were meant to boost the economy of this city, but instead they’ve become a net drain and are costing us enormously,” she added.
The influx of city cash has propped up the hotel industry, which saw 21,000 new rooms alone come online in the four years prior to the pandemic, according to the city’s Department of Planning.
When travelers shunned New York City in 2020 during the pandemic, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio threw many hotel operators a financial lifeline by contracting shuttered commercial buildings to put up the city’s homeless in individual rooms, versus crowded shelters.
Migrant with luggage awaiting to enter building.
The Post reported in September that the city extended a contract with the Hotel Association of New York City for three years with a stunning $1.3 billion price tag — nearly five times the original amount of $275 million — just for rental fees for housing migrants. The deal, however, can be cut short if the city finds it suddenly no longer needs the space.
In January, the city inked a $76.69 million emergency contract with HANYC to provide migrant families “last resort” shelter at 15 hotels in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx through July.
The group’s president and CEO, Vijay Dandapani, insisted he’s working with the city to ensure that the costs and commitments of housing migrants in its members’ hotels “were as low as possible.”
“We’re proud of the work we’ve done as an industry to aid the city in its mission to care for asylum seekers who arrive in NYC,” he said.
Office of the Administrator
The Office of the Administrator contains program offices that directly support the Administrator and Deputy Administrator in the performance of their duties, as well as several program offices that provide agency-wide coordination, guidance, and oversight on key topics.
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Cameron Hamilton, Senior Official Performing the Duties of FEMA Administrator
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MaryAnn Tierney, Senior Official Performing the Duties of FEMA Deputy Administrator
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Julia Moline, Acting Chief of Staff
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Mike Plostock, Acting Deputy Chief of Staff
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>Cameron Hamilton
Trump’s FEMA chief assailed the agency with untruths
By Thomas Frank | 02/04/2025 06:28 AM EST
Acting Administrator Cameron Hamilton amplified false charges that FEMA spent disaster aid on migrants and blocked help to North Carolina.
Cameron Hamilton is President Donald Trump's acting administrator of FEMA.
Cameron Hamilton is President Donald Trump's acting administrator of FEMA. Getty, @FEMA_Cam/X
President Donald Trump’s selection to run federal disaster operations has spread misinformation about the agency he now leads and attacked California Gov. Gavin Newsom and diversity efforts on social media.
Cameron Hamilton, acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, embraced false Republican narratives that FEMA spent disaster aid helping migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border and blocked supplies to North Carolina after Hurricane Helene.
Trump echoed those claims to attack President Joe Biden and FEMA, an agency he has threatened to disband.
POLITICO’s E&E News examined more than 1,000 posts by Hamilton on X and reviewed hours of interviews with conservative news outlets. Hamilton has assailed diversity, equity and inclusion; called Trump’s conviction stemming from hush-money payments to a porn star a “sham”; and posted an unflattering photograph to attack former U.S. health official Rachel Levine, who is transgender.
On Election Day in November, Hamilton highlighted an X posting that proclaimed: “Trump is going to go down in history as the man who stopped the first female president. Twice.”
In September, Hamilton was named vice president of Feds for Freedom, a nonprofit that sued the Biden administration over Covid vaccine mandates and said last year it would sue the federal government “over mandated pronouns.”
Feds for Freedom recently promoted a Virginia militia, launched a petition to end taxpayer funded DEI programs and featured on its podcast pro-Trump activist Ivan Raiklin, who had urged Republican state legislatures to give Trump their states’ 2024 electoral votes.
As acting administrator, Hamilton is exempt from a statutory requirement that the FEMA administrator have “a demonstrated ability in and knowledge of emergency management and homeland security.” Former agency officials told E&E News that Hamilton could remain acting administrator for a long time — potentially the next four years.
The former Navy SEAL worked at the Department of Homeland Security from 2020 to 2023 as director of emergency medical services and was a State Department supervisory emergency management specialist from 2015 to 2020. Since Congress imposed the job requirements after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, presidents including Trump in his first term had appointed veteran emergency managers to run FEMA.
“He’s completely unqualified to be the head of FEMA right now,” said Samantha Montano, disaster researcher and co-founder of the Center for Climate Change Research. “He doesn’t even understand how FEMA’s budget works.”
FEMA’s press office did not respond to questions about Hamilton, who has not spoken publicly since Trump put him in charge of the agency shortly after inauguration. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Since taking charge of FEMA, Hamilton has posted messages on his new FEMA account on X telling hurricane survivors “you are not forgotten” and that “real change is coming to FEMA.”
“I will prioritize enhancing FEMA’s operational focus and ensuring transparency,” Hamilton wrote on Jan. 26.
“As a life-long public servant, I have deep admiration and appreciation for @FEMA’s mission of helping people before, during, and after disasters,” Hamilton wrote in a separate post.
Repeating falsehoods about FEMA
Finance
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Mary Comans, Chief Financial Officer
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Monroe "Neal" Jr., Deputy Chief Financial Officer
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Thom Layou, Assistant Administrator, Budget
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Greg Teets, Assistant Administrator, Financial Management
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Christopher Kraft, Assistant Administrator, Financial Systems
Mary Comans
Office of the Chief Financial Officer
Chief Financial Officer
Ms. Comans serves as FEMA’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO). She is a longtime public servant who has served as FEMA’s Acting Chief Operating Officer and Acting External Affairs Director as well as numerous positions across the Department of Homeland Security Headquarters and its components. In each of these roles, Ms. Comans has brought professionalism and leadership that has reinforced her reputation as an efficient, effective manager within the federal government.
Ms. Comans holds a Master of Science in National Resource Strategy from the Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security & Resource Strategy and a Master of Public Administration from New York University. Her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Fordham University.
>Mornin' Ralph… Please pass the Covfefe.
>Triple shot as I have a dentist appt in a couple hours.
>I can jump out of perfectly fine airplanes with no fear, but I am scared shitless of dentists.
ack..dentist definitely calls for triple shot.
good luck