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The Hotel Vouchering Program has provided 28-day hotel stays for 7,875 migrant families with children since July 2023, City Hall said. It will end next month, and comes as the city winds down other major parts of its migrant response, citing the declining number of new arrivals.
Adi Talwar
A hotel in Queens that was being used by the city to shelter migrants in July 2023.Lea la versión en español aquí.
After two years, the city is ending an initiative that provides short-term hotel room stays to migrants and asylum-seekers in need of shelter—the latest move from City Hall to scale back its response efforts for new immigrant arrivals, citing declining numbers.
The Hotel Vouchering Program has provided 28-day hotel stays for migrant families with children since it was quietly launched in July 2023, as City Limits first reported. At the time, the number of immigrant arrivals in the homeless shelter system was on the rise, and the vouchers were used to house them if no other options were available, officials said previously. After 28 days, families could seek another placement, typically for 60-day stays in other emergency shelters.
Its ending, slated for late March, comes as the city winds down other parts of its migrant response. Mayor Eric Adams announced Monday that Manhattan’s Roosevelt Hotel, which has served as a centralized intake and resource center for migrants and asylum seekers since May 2023, will close in June.
In recent months, the administration has also closed dozens of migrant shelters around the city, including large tent facilities at Floyd Bennett Field and Randall’s Island and another mega-shelter on Hall Street in Brooklyn. Officials expect to close 53 shelters in total by June.
City Hall said that once the Asylum Seeker Arrival Center at the Roosevelt Hotel is closed, intake functions and supportive services will be integrated into other areas of the system, and families requesting shelter will still be offered a placement.
Both the mayor and advocates say the population using the voucher program, and the city’s migrant shelter census overall, has declined in recent months, with approximately 350 new arrivals per week, down from a previous high of 4,000. Just over 46,000 migrants were in the shelter system at the end of January, data tracked by City Limits’ shows.
As of Dec. 15, 274 households were in the hotel voucher program, and 230 households as of Jan. 19, said Kathryn Kliff of the Legal Aid Society, which has been receiving reports about the program. That dipped to a total of 165 households, made up of about 496 individuals, as of Feb. 24, a City Hall spokesperson said.
The program, in which the city books blocks of hotel rooms, has been used by 7,875 families in total over the last two years, City Hall said. Recently, for example, families with children living in East Brooklyn's Floyd Bennett Tent Shelter received 28-day hotel vouchers after that site was shuttered in January.
The Department of Housing, Preservation and Development (HPD) oversees the program, which was used as a last resort when the city had no other shelter options. The Hotel Association of New York City—which has seen significant shelter business from the city in recent years—executed the $76.6 million contract, which was extended once for an additional year ending in July 2025, according to City Hall.
The voucher program was created before adult migrants and families with children reentering city shelters began receiving 30- and 60-day shelter deadlines. Unlike other city shelters, these hotels often lacked services and substantial food options, advocates said.
“Our experience has been that it's hard to reach those clients oftentimes,” Kliff said. “But the clients that we have talked to [about it], the big issue has always been the lack of food and services.”
When City Limits first reported on the program, families reported getting all of their food in a small box containing juices, a couple of bottles of water, small boxes of milk, jellies, compotes, and packets of Cheez-Its.
“The biggest issue we've had is just a lack of services, and especially the ‘meals’ they provide. It's like a box of snacks and it's supposed to last people,” Kliff added.
Between May and December of last year, families in the voucher program received prepaid debit cards as replacements for non-perishable food boxes, allowing them to purchase food directly instead. The pilot program became a target of criticism by conservatives—and in November, the mayor announced its end.
Advocates say their worry now, as the city speeds up its shelter closures, is maintaining enough beds to meet need. “Our primary concern, as always, is that the City retains enough shelter capacity to ensure that no one without a place to sleep at night is denied a placement,” said Dave Giffen, executive director at Coalition for the Homeless, in an email.
“The last thing anyone in this city wants to see is more people relegated to sleeping on our streets. The City continues to assure us that they have enough beds, even amidst all closures, but we’re monitoring the situation very closely,” he added.
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