December 18, 2023
Contact: Gates MacPherson | gmacpherson@skdknick.com
More beds for migrants: faith leaders and NY SANE Coalition call on City to approve plan to house 5,000 asylum seekers at houses of worship, save over $547 million per year
Faith-based organizations would each shelter up to 14 asylum seekers at a cost of just $74 per night — compared to the $383 per night the City currently spends on emergency hotels.
Progress toward implementing a faith-based shelter plan includes productive conversations with FDNY on fire codes.
NEW YORK, NY — As New York City continues to respond to the influx of over 125,000 asylum seekers, faith leaders — including members of the New York Shelter for All in Need Equally (NY SANE) Coalition — today called on the Adams Administration to approve a plan that would enable hundreds of faith-based organizations to provide shelter for 5,000 of the newest New Yorkers while saving the City over $547 million annually.
“New Yorkers of all backgrounds seek dignity in every person and respond with compassion for those in need. Since the very beginning of this crisis, New York City’s faith-based organizations have stepped forward to offer support to asylum-seekers arriving in our City,” said Bishop Matthew Heyd from the Episcopal Diocese of New York. “We’re now seeking a partnership to do more. This proposal provides a cost-effective opportunity to give asylum-seekers a warm place to sleep through the coldest months of the year. We call on the City to work with faith-based organizations eager to support our most vulnerable neighbors, whether their families have been here for three days or three generations.”
“Unless we do something, thousands of asylum seekers — including families with children — may soon be on the streets during the coldest months of the year. It’s unconscionable, and we need all New Yorkers to step up and find creative solutions to this crisis,” said Christine C. Quinn, President & CEO of Win. “Faith-based groups have always welcomed the newest New Yorkers, and their new plan would house 5,000 people — which is double the capacity of expensive and under-resourced shelters at The Hall and The Roosevelt, and I applaud these leaders for once again stepping up. I urge the City to embrace this humane, common sense, and fiscally sound solution. New Yorkers have always helped our neighbors in times of need, and we cannot turn our backs on that tradition now.”
Over the past year and a half, New York City has struggled to find adequate shelter for the new arrivals, leading to dire situations where hundreds of asylum seekers are forced to sleep on the streets during frigid winter nights. In response, the City has implemented backward policies like the 30- and 60-day rules, which force single asylum seekers to leave shelter every month and families with children to re-apply for shelter every two months. At the same time, the Adams Administration is seeking to end the right to shelter, which would only exacerbate the ongoing crisis and force more people onto the street, while blaming asylum seekers for draconian budget cuts.
The faith-based shelter proposal will help alleviate overcrowding in shelters and save the City an estimated $547.5 million over the next year. Under the plan, hundreds of houses of worship and other faith-based locations will serve as overnight shelters for 9 to 14 adult male asylum seekers each night, providing a total of 5,000 individuals with a warm, safe space to sleep and referrals for services. Each shelter will be staffed with a coordinator, volunteers, and a security guard. Faith leaders and advocates have been in active conversation with the FDNY on this plan and believe limiting faith-based shelters to 14 or fewer beds will allow the facilities to comply with fire codes by employing in-person fire wardens, rather than spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on fire suppression systems.
This program comes after the New York Disaster Interfaith Services (NYDIS) successfully partnered with the City to launch a smaller program that will allow up to 50 houses of worship or faith-based spaces to offer overnight shelter for single adult men at each location. This program is currently underway and provides 15-bed shelters for migrants, thanks to the collaboration with the FDNY.
The faith-based shelters will contract directly with the city at a rate of $74 per person per day — compared to the $383 per night the City currently pays for emergency hotels. The $311 per person per night savings, multiplied across the 5,000 asylum seekers who would be served in this plan amounts to potential savings of $1.5 million per day or $547.5 million annually. In addition, the funds that the city does spend would go to organizations that serve New York’s communities, rather than for-profit companies that only focus on their bottom line. "This holiday season, our Covenant on Behalf of New York's Newest New Yorkers calls on all our institutions to rise to the challenge of welcoming the more than 60,000 migrants and their families currently calling our city home: government—city, state, and federal—nonprofits, private sector, and faith-based communities," said the Rev. Dr. Chloe Breyer, Executive Director of the Interfaith Center of New York.
“Few things are more destructive to a family than being evicted from their home and having their children lose their school connections. Every city effort should go to helping families stay in their shelters until housing can be found for them that will allow their children to stay in the same schools where they have been part of building community over the last year. Students losing teachers and teachers losing students in the middle of a school year will be exceedingly bad for all parties,” said Ruth Messinger, Global Ambassador and former President and CEO of the American Jewish World Service.
As part of this proposal, faith leaders have already identified over 200 potential facilities to host faith-based shelters. Any institution interested in taking part in this program is encouraged to fill out a form here.