NYC hospitals spend over $90 million to house migrants in Midtown hotels

The Big Apple state hospital system is planning to spend more than $90 million to house migrants in four midtown Manhattan hotels until spring in response to President Biden’s border crisis, The Post has learned.

According to documents first released by The City, NYC Health + Hospitals CEO Mitchell Katz approved a $40 million payment to the four-star Row NYC hotel near Times Square and $28 million to the four-star Stewart Hotel across from Madison Square Garden.

Last month, The Post reported that workers on the Row throw away nearly a ton of food every day because migrants living there don’t want to eat it.

Hotel whistleblower Felipe Rodriguez also claimed that the once-fancy hotel formerly known as Milford Plaza, which advertised itself as the “Lullaby of Broadway,” had become “universal access” to sex, drugs and violence.

Another $20 million will go to the Watson Hotel on West 57th Street in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, where a group of migrants recently staged a protest against relocation to a shelter in Brooklyn, and $5.8 million to the historic Wolcott Hotel on West 31st Street.

A migrant camp near the Watson Hotel on February 1, 2023.
Polaris

Authorities clear a makeshift migrant camp outside the Watson Hotel.
Authorities clear a makeshift migrant camp outside the Watson Hotel.
Christopher Sadowski

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Migrants leave Watson to go to a new facility in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
Migrants leave Watson to go to a new facility in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
Gregory P. Mango

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H+H’s planned $93.8 million spending, which bypasses the city government’s normal contract oversight procedures, follows an Oct. help” or HERRCs.

Last week, the seventh HERRC opened at the Wingate by Wyndham in Long Island City. The other two HERRCs are located at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Red Hook and the world’s tallest Holiday Inn in Manhattan’s financial district.

The first HERRC, a tent city built on Orchard Beach in the Bronx, never opened due to flood fears and was replaced by another, short-lived tent city on Randall’s Island.


The city plans to spend $90 million this spring to house migrants in New York City hotels, including the Watson Hotel in the Hell's Kitchen district.
This spring, the city’s public hospital system plans to spend $93.8 million to house migrants in New York City hotels.
Seth Gottfried

Huron Consulting Services, which participated in H+H’s COVID-19 testing operation, is receiving $18.5 million to help open HERRC.

Another company, Rapid Reliable Testing, has been awarded an $11.5 million contract to sort incoming migrants.

As of Wednesday, at least 47,600 migrants have flooded into the city since last spring, of which nearly 30,000 are officially estimated to be living in 95 taxpayer-funded shelters, including HERRC.

Adams declined to detail his spending on the migrant crisis, which the city government and budget recently estimated at $4.2 billion through mid-2024.

Migrant mess at The Row Hotel in Manhattan.
Garbage left in a room occupied by migrants at The Row Hotel in Manhattan.
Dennis A. Clark

Row employees told The Post they are throwing away bags of food migrants don't want to eat.
Row employees told The Post they are throwing away bags of food migrants don’t want to eat.
Dennis A. Clark

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“Since the beginning of this humanitarian crisis, New York City has taken multi-agency action to make sure we meet our moral obligations and provide compassionate and comprehensive assistance to those who come to our city,” Adams spokesperson Jonah Allon told The City, “and NYC Health + Hospitals has played a key role in this response from the beginning.”

A spokesperson for H+H declined to speak to the publication on record.

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texasstandard.news contributed to this report.

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