Council probes migrant move to suburbs


A City Council budget hearing Monday marked the first time an Adams administration official has detailed the mayor’s new plan to relocate asylum-seekers to hotels in suburban counties.

The program would only apply to single adults who would stay in the hotels in Rockland and Orange counties for four months and receive help getting to other parts of the U.S., social services Commissioner Molly Park testified.

The option to move north of the city is voluntary and will start in the coming weeks.

The housing department will fund the relocation through pre-existing appropriations, Park said, adding that she couldn’t put an exact price tag on the move and associated costs.

Where suburban leaders expressed outright hostility to the plan – with the Republican Rockland County executive going so far as to issue a state of emergency to try and block it – council members showed strong skepticism.

Park said she had been in contact with her counterparts before Adams announced the plan.

“There was communication,” she said. Park contrasted the administration’s approach as more compassionate than the “political stunts” of the Republican governors of Texas and Florida who’ve sent migrants north because New York is paying for it.

But when asked by Council Speaker Adrienne Adams whether the suburban counties had a choice in the decision, Park conceded the point.

“My understanding is no,” she said.

From the Capitol

SEXUAL HARASSMENT: Leaders of two victim advocate organizations – Lift Our Voices and the Sexual Harassment Working Group – rallied Monday at the Capitol for passage of the Stop Silencing Survivors Act. The legislation is sponsored by state Senator Andrew Gounardes and Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas.

Aimed at protecting victims of workplace harassment, the bill would eliminate non-disclosure and non-disparagement agreements in any settlement with an employee, which would allow them to speak without fear of retaliation or legal exposure.

“NDAs silence victims of harassment and discrimination, full stop. They protect abusers and prevent employees from sharing information that can protect others from future harm,” said Gounardes. — Eleonora Francica

INCREASE OF MINIMUM WAGE FOR TIPPED WORKERS: Academy Award winner Susan Sarandon was in Albany Monday morning pushing for legislation to increase the minimum wage of tipped restaurant workers. The state budget will raise New York’s minimum wage to $17 an hour while indexing it to inflation for future increases – except for the service industry workers who are disproportionately women of color. A recent report showed that when New York workers received a $15 minimum wage increase in 2016, wages for tipped workers suffered a 25 percent decline. — Eleonora Francica

From City Hall

BUDGET BATTLES: As budget negotiations with Mayor Adams heat up, the City Council started off the week with a gift from the Independent Budget Office. At the Council’s request, IBO released an analysis Monday suggesting City Hall over projected the costs of the asylum-seeker crisis – potentially by billions.

Even in a worst-case scenario, the mayor’s price tag of $4.3 billion for this fiscal year and the next is $600 million more than what IBO estimates. But that number could be as much as $1.7 billion off, IBO says.

Mayoral spokesperson Fabien Levy criticized the take. “Their worst-case analysis ignores their own premise — that the population grows and costs will be higher than current rates,” he said in a statement.

Monday’s back-and-forth is the latest installment of the Council’s battle to insist there’s more cushion in the budget than City Hall has stated.

Given how closely Adams has tied cuts to uncertainty about the migrant crisis, it’s unlikely Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s planned relocation of thousands more migrants to New York and other cities, coupled with the impending lapse of Title 42, will make those negotiations any easier. — Zachary Schermele

On The Beats

FOOD INSECURITY: Food pantry visits by New York City families with children rose by nearly 70 percent since the Covid-19 pandemic started, according to a new report by City Harvest. Queens — the borough hit hardest by the pandemic — saw an 87 percent increase in pantry visits by children compared to 2019. The Bronx and Brooklyn saw increases of 46 percent and 61 percent, respectively, and Manhattan had an increase of 64 percent. The organization also launched its annual “Share Lunch Fight Hunger” campaign that encourages New Yorkers to donate money to feed more than 13,000 city children and families for the whole summer. — Madina Touré


RIDING THE RAILS: Grand Central Madison may have had a rough start when rail service began earlier this year, but it’s already become one of the most popular rail stations in the nation.

The new terminal has surpassed Boston South Station and Chicago Union Station in the rankings of busiest commuter railroad facilities, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said Monday. Even though ridership remains 70 percent of pre-pandemic levels across the system, it has inched upward in recent weeks. Last month, both Metro North Railroad and Long Island Rail Road recorded their highest average weekday ridership since the pandemic began.

The MTA also unveiled two escalators and one elevator that will make it easier to get to the main level of the station from Grand Central Madison, which is 150 feet below street level. — Danielle Muoio Dunn

HOUSING VOUCHERS: City-funded rental assistance programs for people exiting shelters or facing homelessness have ballooned in cost in recent years — possibly exceeding the city’s ability to pay for them, according to a new report from the Citizens Budget Commission. Spending on rental aid, including a voucher program known as CityFHEPS, is projected to reach $636 million in fiscal year 2023, up from $16 million in 2015. The cost of that program has increased as it serves a greater number of households due to expanded rent limits, time limits and eligibility rules.

The think tank warned rental assistance spending is facing a “massive, double-whammy fiscal cliff, due to a $75 million drop in expiring federal Covid-19 aid, and a $350 million drop in city funding in the executive budget. “Vouchers can be an effective, well targeted method to support the housing needs of the lowest-income New Yorkers. However, the scale of the problem exceeds the City’s ability to pay for it,” CBC wrote. “Only the federal government has the capacity and should appropriately bear a substantial responsibility to address the needs.” — Janaki Chadha

Around New York

— Via Times Union: ‘Political battle in Clifton Park continues with highway superintendent filing harassment complaint.’

— The mob’s legacy lives on for the NY-NJ waterfront. (THE CITY)

— Rent prices for small businesses outside Manhattan are soaring. (The New York Times)

— ‘U-Haul driver who struck 10 during Brooklyn rampage indicted for murder,’ WNYC reports.