Jorge, 43, and Renny, 22, both from Venezuela, are two of the dozens of asylum seekers that were brought from New York City to the Crossroads Hotel in Newburgh. Both men, photographed outside the hotel May 31, 2023, said that they had to flee their home country because of danger faced by themselves and their families had they stayed. Jorge left a wife and two daughters behind.

Migrants still housed in upstate hotels must leave as NYC ends relocation program

· Yahoo News

New York City will stop using hotels in the Hudson Valley, Rochester and other upstate areas to house asylum seekers by the end of December, ending a controversial practice that started last year after the city's migrant population surged.

That influx and the city's quest to expand its shelter space has since subsided. The number of asylum seekers boarded at upstate hotels had sunk to 1,100 from a peak of 2,200 as of one month ago, city officials have said in court papers. And that number will drop to zero by Dec. 31, with the expiration of a contract with the company that had managed most of those sites.

Asylum seekers had volunteered to be placed in those hotels, a strategy New York City pursued to open space in its crowded shelters as waves of migrants steadily arrived and entered the city's shelter system.

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Those who remained in upstate hotels were given notices in September that said the relocation program was ending and they must leave by Dec. 31. They were told an "exit planning team" would help them find other places to live and offer free transportation. They could opt to move into a New York City shelter, but their stays would be limited to 30 or 60 days.

The city started moving migrants outside its borders in May 2023, setting off stiff resistance by local officials to the first sites the city had lined up in Rockland and Orange counties. Lawsuits by those and other counties effectively stalled those moves within a few months after the city had settled around 2,200 migrants at 14 hotels in seven counties ‒ a total that never rose any higher.

Those scattered hotels included a Rochester Holiday Inn that took in 164 asylum seekers; three Westchester County hotels ‒ in Yonkers, Ardsley and White Plains ‒ that used to house a total of roughly 400 asylum seekers; two sites in the Orange County town of Newburgh, which had taken in 186 migrants before a court order blocked further transfers; and a Red Roof Inn in the Dutchess County town of Poughkeepsie, which had a court limit of 86 asylum seekers.

The other hotels used by the city were in Albany, Schenectady and Erie counties.

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The city already had ceased boarding asylum seekers at several of its 14 upstate hotels by mid-October, a city official said in a Rockland County court filing. How many continue to operate as shelters today was unclear on Monday.

All three Westchester County hotels remained in use with a combined 145 migrants ‒ 106 adults and 39 children ‒ staying at them as of Monday, according to Westchester officials.

Families of asylum seekers are led into the Ramada hotel in Yonkers May 15, 2023. The families were being housed in New York City.

Low impact: NYC first moved asylum seekers upstate in May. What's happening at those hotels now?

Much of the litigation that erupted last year has lingered long after the city's relocation efforts stalled. Rockland County, for example, is still waging its court fight even though the city, blocked by temporary orders, has never moved a single asylum seeker into the Armoni Inn & Suites in Orangeburg, which was set to house up to 340.

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Empty rooms: $3.3M for unused hotel rooms in Rockland: Bills show full NYC tab for failed migrant site

Attorneys for New York City are now asking a judge to dismiss Rockland's lawsuit as moot, since the city is abandoning the use of upstate hotels by Dec. 31.

"There is no longer a Proposed Transfer, let alone an actual one, to Rockland County," city attorney Joshua Rubin wrote in a Nov. 7 court brief. "To this day, the City has not provided temporary housing assistance to any asylum seekers in any hotels in Rockland County, and has now determined to terminate its use of hotels upstate for this purpose."

The city wound up paying $3.3 million over eight months last year for empty rooms at the Armoni Inn & Suites, shelling out $170 a night for each room it hoped to use in case it prevailed in court, the USA Today Network found in August based on invoices from DocGo, the city contractor.

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The city has provided housing and services to more than 223,000 migrants in all since the spring of 2022, the mayor's office said in an announcement on Monday. It didn't say how many are currently in the city's care, but that count had dipped from 69,000 in January to 62,000 as of Sept. 30, according to city council data.

Chris McKenna covers government and politics for The Journal News and USA Today Network. Reach him at cmckenna@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: NYC migrant relocation program to end, must leave upstate NY hotels