NYC paid millions for unnecessary migrant services, comptroller's report says
NEW YORK – There are questions about how Mayor Eric Adams' administration initially dealt with New York City's migrant crisis after the city comptroller released a damning audit that found the city paid millions of dollars for unnecessary services.
It is an example of the fraught relationship between the comptroller's office and an administration that suddenly found itself faced with finding shelter for tens of thousands of asylum seekers.
Comptroller slams "atrocious mismanagement"
According to the audit, under the city's contract with DocGo, the city paid for some 10,000 hotel rooms in New York City and Upstate New York that were never used. That included nearly $570,000 for 3,500 vacant rooms at the Crowne Plaza JFK Hotel for ten nights in June 2023, and more than $833,000 for 4,902 vacant rooms at the Armoni Inn in Upstate Orangeburg for 61 nights in May and June 2023.
"It was a big mistake to hire DocGo, and everyone knew it at the time and they did it anyway," Comptroller Brad Lander said.
The audit, which covered only May and June of 2023, also found:
- 80% of the payments – $11 million of $13.8 million – were undocumented and shouldn't have been paid,
- a $2 million overpayment by DocGo for security subcontractors,
- and 80% of the 189 hotel rooms visited by auditors had deficiencies ranging from no microwaves and refrigerators to bad food to roaches, bed bugs and rats.
"It really is atrocious mismanagement," Lander said.
New Yorkers can probably expect more audits like this: Lander recently announced he's running for mayor and will face Adams in a primary.
Mayor Adams defends having hotel rooms for migrants at the ready
A mayoral spokesman initially called the audit "nitpicking," insisting that safeguards were ultimately put in place to make sure the city was getting the best bang for the buck, but at his weekly availability Tuesday, the mayor spoke of the sudden crisis faced by the city when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott started sending busloads of asylum seekers to the Big Apple.
"At one point, we were receiving 4,000. Four thousand people a week," Adams said.
He defended the need to have rooms at the ready so that people weren't sleeping on the street.
"A bus pulled in, you need 150 rooms, you need 300 rooms – you don't have time to call Motel 6. You better be prepared," Adams said.
"They call it 'nitpicking.' We call it reviewing the invoices to see if the people that are billing you have actually done the work," Lander said.
A spokesman for DocGo said it was "proud" of the work they did with the city in providing 1.6 million nights of housing and over 100,000 medical and social work appointments.