NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams’ administration has since last week been able to apply for more migrant crisis funding from the federal government — despite claims to the contrary from the mayor's budget chief.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency started accepting applications on March 3 for a $350 million pot that reimburses local governments across the U.S. for expenses related to sheltering and providing services for asylum seekers, a FEMA spokesman told the Daily News on Wednesday.
Applications can be submitted via a website set up by FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program. The website states that local governments should submit claims for reimbursement for migrant crisis-related costs incurred between July 1, 2022, and Feb. 28, and the spokesman said the program’s national board will “consider all applications.”
“However, depending on funding availability and need, the (Emergency Food and Shelter Program) National Board cannot guarantee that all requests will receive funding,” the spokesman added.
In contrast to the FEMA rep’s statement, Jacques Jiha, Adams’ director of management and budget, testified at a City Council hearing this past Monday that the mayor’s administration has not been able to apply for migrant aid from the feds because “they haven’t set up the program yet.”
“So we have to wait,” Jiha said at the hearing, adding that as a result he believes it’s “unlikely” the feds will fork over any more aid to the city this fiscal year, which runs through July 1.
On the same day of Jiha’s testimony, FEMA hosted a virtual briefing where local government officials could pose questions about the application process for the migrant aid, the agency spokesman said.
It’s unclear if anyone from the Adams administration attended that briefing. A spokeswoman for the mayor did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday afternoon.
The Emergency Food and Shelter Program allocation is part of a larger $800 million fund Congress created in December to help cities across the country shoulder the financial burden of caring for the hundreds of thousands of mostly Latin American asylum seekers who have arrived in the U.S. since last spring. An application system for the remaining $450 million is still being set up, the FEMA spokesman said.
It’s unclear how much the city could net from FEMA in migrant aid. A source close to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in December that Adams’ administration is expected to get a “substantial share” of the $800 million, though, considering how many migrants are in the city.
So far, the city has received only $8 million in aid from the federal government for migrant crisis-related costs.
Adams has repeatedly said the city needs at least $1 billion in federal funds, as his administration continues to spend an average of nearly $5 million per day on housing, feeding and providing various services for the more than 31,000 migrants who remain in local shelters.
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