(NewsNation) — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is proposing a new budget to ramp up funding to handle New York City’s asylum-seeker crisis.
On Tuesday, Hochul unveiled a $233 billion budget that includes $2.4 billion to cover the cost of sheltering migrants and provide funds for case management, medical and legal bills and employment-related services. This is a $500 million increase over last year’s allotment.
This comes after months of pleas from Mayor Eric Adams to President Joe Biden for migrant funding.
“We must support the city of New York in this moment,” Hochul said.
At the start of last December, more than 150,100 migrants had arrived in New York City since the spring of 2022. City officials have struggled to process, house and feed the migrants as busloads of asylum-seekers enter the city nearly every day.
Officials project the cost of providing food, shelter, medical care and other services to the migrants to reach around $10 billion through the summer of 2025
“We’re doing this not just because it’s the right thing to do for the migrants and for the city of New York. We also know that companies won’t do business in New York if there are thousands of people sleeping on the streets or the quality of life is dramatically impacted because the city is forced to cut essential services,” Hochul said.
The budget proposal officially launches a 10-week negotiation period with lawmakers.
