New York City ends $220m lease with PIA-owned Roosevelt Hotel

New York: New York City is ending its $220 million lease agreement with the PIA-owned Roosevelt Hotel, which had been serving as a migrant shelter, following intense criticism from some of US President Donald Trump’s supporters over the use of American taxpayer money to house asylum seekers.

The iconic hotel in Manhattan was shut down in 2020 due to a severe loss of revenue resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. Three years later, it’s management signed a lease contract with New York City which converted it into a shelter for a large number of asylum seekers in the United States.

Facing pressure from both the federal government and right-wing hardliners, Mayor Eric Adams announced the closure of the facility on Monday. Adams said the city will shut the Roosevelt Hotel in “the coming months.”

The announcement follows the closure or planned shutdown of 53 other migrant shelters, including a large tent facility on Randall’s Island, which is expected to shutter at the end of the month.

Mayor Adams credited the closure to the administration’s successful emergency response and policy decisions, stating that it will help the city save millions of taxpayer dollars.

“While we are not done caring for those who came into our care, today marks another milestone in demonstrating the immense progress we have achieved in turning the corner on the unprecedented international humanitarian effort,” Adams said in a video release.

The Roosevelt Hotel served as both the literal and symbolic centre of the city’s struggle to manage the influx of new arrivals under its right-to-shelter laws. It sits in a prime midtown Manhattan location, steps from Grand Central Terminal and some of the highest-priced office buildings on Park Avenue. It opened in 1924, was named after President Theodore Roosevelt.

The hotel reportedly housed tens of thousands of migrants across its 1,025 rooms at an estimated cost of $200 per night.

The number of arrivals in New York has fallen to 350 a week, down from a peak of about 4,000, with the midtown intake centre processing the bulk of the city’s migrants. The hotel, which has taken in more than 173,000 migrants since its opening as a shelter in 2023, struggled to keep up with the influx. At times migrants waited outside the facility for days.

The Roosevelt Hotel served as a key processing centre, handling around 75% of the migrants who arrived in the city.

The drop in migrants arriving in New York is part of a declining trend in the US due to shifts in immigration policy by the current and previous administrations. In July, a month after the Biden administration tightened US border policy, weekly arrivals into the city dipped below the 1,000 mark.

Numbers have continued to fall since President Donald Trump took office last month. He ended access to CBP One, a popular scheduling app for asylum seekers, and stepped up enforcement at the border. Adams has vowed to support Trump’s crackdown, urging migrants not to come to New York.

New York has cared for more than 232,000 migrants since 2022, according to City Hall. There are currently fewer than 45,000 in the city’s care, down from a high of 69,000 in January 2024.

Overall, efforts to reduce the city’s role in caring for migrants is expected to save more than $5 billion over the next three fiscal years, according to projections by City Hall.