Contracting for Shelter and Services
The City of New York has entered into hundreds of emergency contracts to provide shelter and services to tens of thousands of asylum seekers.
Asylum related contracts that have been submitted to the Comptroller’s Office are available in checkbooknyc.com. To find these contracts, visit checkbooknyc.com,
- Select contracts from the five icons below the search bar.
- Select advanced search to the right of the search bar.
- In the advanced search pop up window, select “ASYLUM” under the conditional event, and press submit.
The downloadable data for earlier time periods includes H+H and non-H+H contracts, going forward updates will only include H+H data provided directly by the administration. H+H is a public benefit corporation and its emergency contracts are not filed with the Comptroller’s Office, nor included in Checkbook. The H+H file available for download is what has been shared with the Comptroller’s Office by the Mayoral Administration as of January 2024, April 2024, and June 2024.
Emergency Procurement
Emergency contracting brings greater risk of waste and fraud, as agencies scramble to procure goods and services with less time and competition. The Comptroller’s Office issued a best practices memo to all City agencies with guidance on increasing competition and oversight even in time-sensitive emergency contexts. The emergency procurement process, governed by the Procurement Policy Board’s rules, enables agencies to contract for goods and services before submitting the final contracts to the Comptroller’s Bureau of Contracts Administration for review and registration. After contracts are underway, the Comptroller’s Bureau of Audit is empowered to conduct investigations and audits of city agencies or vendors to ensure that they are meeting their obligations and using resources wisely.
- Read more about the risks of emergency contracting and the Comptroller’s Office’s recommendations in the Rethinking Emergency Procurement report.
- Read the Comptroller’s best practices memo to agencies on containing costs in emergency contracting.
- Suggest an audit to the Comptroller’s office.
The Office of the Comptroller uses the term “asylum seeker” to refer to newly arrived migrants who have come to NYC in need of shelter and are seeking asylum or other forms of immigration relief.