Accounting for Asylum Seeker Services

The Comptroller’s Office analyzes the City’s spending on asylum seeker services as part of its oversight responsibilities. Asylum seeker spending has been driven primarily by the number of households in shelter. The average per diem cost of providing shelter and services, while a contributing factor, has remained relatively constant, decreasing by less than $15 from FY 2024 to FY 2025.

Table 1: Funding for Services to People Seeking Asylum, NYC OMB Financial Plans

Source: Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget

Note: Italicized figures represent actual spending; all others are budgeted amounts. N/A cells reflect that the budget for a particular Fiscal Year was not yet established.

As shown in Table 1, annual spending peaked in FY 2024 at $3.75 billion, when the in-shelter census was at its highest. At the time, the City expected the population to continue to grow and budgeted for larger census levels, rising to $4.75 billion in FY 2025 with large placeholder amounts in the outyears.  As the actual population has come down, OMB has revised its own projections downward, taking billions in savings over multiple financial plans. The total actual and budgeted spending over the FY 2023 to FY 2029 time period has declined from $17.86 billion as of the June 2024 Financial Plan to just $11.82 billion as of the most recent June 2025 Plan.  For additional information, please see the Comptroller’s August 13^th Comments on New York City’s Fiscal Year 2026 Adopted Budget.

Table 2: Funding for Asylum Seekers (FY 2023 FY 2024, and FY 2025 Actuals), as of the Adopted 2026 Financial Plan

Source: Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget.

Note: “Actuals” represent amounts in the City’s Financial Management System as of October 2025, which are still preliminary accrued costs and are subject to revision; FY 23 Actuals are adjusted for an anticipated write-down of State funding.

State and Federal Funding

The New York State Enacted Budget, signed by Governor Hochul on May 9, 2025, did not include any additional State aid for the City’s asylum seeker spending beyond the $3.25 billion provided previously. The State cited a steep drop in weekly arrivals and approximately $2 billion in State funding that the City has yet to draw down as reasons for decreased funding.

In the FY 2026 Adopted Budget, the City added $103 million in State aid to the FY 2026 budget, in anticipation that the City will write down a portion of a prior year receivable for State revenue from FY 2023 during the FY 2025 year-end close.  As of July 31, 2025, the City has received $1.26 billion in State funding for asylum seekers, including advances. $1.99 billion remains outstanding to reach the budgeted State reimbursement of $3.25 billion from FY 2023 through FY 2026.  According to OMB, the City has submitted draft claims and is coordinating with the State to finalize contracts and claiming processes for the outstanding amounts.

The Adopted Budget did not alter any Federal funding in FY 2025 or FY 2026. Combined with FY 2024 prior year funding of $120 million, OMB anticipated a total of $238 million in Federal aid across all years. Of this funding, $237.5 million is from the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) funding outlined below while the remaining $0.7 million is funded by the CDC and used for tuberculosis prevention and immunizations.

At the close of FY 2025, OMB added an additional $7 million in federal funding in FY 2025, bringing the total across all years to $245 million.

Prior to February 4, 2025, the City received $120 million in FEMA funding ($70.6 million for the Shelter and Services Program (SSP), and $49.0 million for the Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP)). On February 4, 2025, FEMA paid the City an additional $80.5 million in Federal FY 2024 SSP grant awards—$58.5 million for SSP-A (Allocated) grants and $21.9 million for an SSP-C (Competitive) grant reward. These payments were for eligible expense claims filed by the City under SSP. Following funding disbursement to the City, the FEMA employees involved in making the payment were dismissed and the federal government reversed the deposit to the City. Subsequently, the City received notice that all SSP awards were under review — that paid funds may be revoked, and other funds may remain withheld. These actions are now part of a federal lawsuit from the NYC Law Department, seeking to restore this funding and ensure the federal government will not withdraw funds again in the future.[1]

See the Comptroller’s Comments on New York City’s Executive Budget for Fiscal Year 2026 for more details.

Historical Spending

The City of New York spent $1.41 billion for asylum seeker shelter and services in FY 2023 and $3.70 billion in FY 2024, and $3.02 billion in FY 2025.

AS Spending ($ in Millions)

Source: NYC Financial Management System, NYC Terms and Conditions for budget adoption

Note: For prior fiscal years liquidated expenditures data are through 10/8/2025, and 10/6/2025 for FY 2025 commitments/liquidations. Liquidated represents the expenditure amount that has been distributed, including drawdowns of the prior year payable. Remaining Prior Year Payables are the FY 2023 and FY 2024 payable amounts that are yet to be cleared. Remaining Committed is the expenditure amount shown in FMS and includes pre-encumbrances, encumbrances, and unliquidated amounts.

This Office has previously reported that liquidations for asylum seeker costs in prior years did not keep pace with commitments. This initially resulted in large open payable amounts, particularly for FY 2023. According to the City’s Financial Management System, total FY 2023 commitments for asylum seeker expenses were $1.47 billion as of the close of that fiscal year. However, only $988.5 million had been liquidated as of October 2024, leaving open payables of $482 million across 10 agencies, but primarily at DHS with an open payable of $381 million and H+H with an open payable of $89 million.

This was largely due to the City recording approximately $289 million of FY 2023 asylum seeker spending in non-asylum seeker budget codes at DHS, while also opening a payable in the asylum seeker budget codes in anticipation of the same costs. As part of an ongoing process to reconcile this, $289 million in liquidations have since been moved out of the DHS non-asylum seeker codes and into the asylum seeker ones with a commensurate write-down (reduction) of non-asylum seeker DHS costs.

With this adjustment, as well as other liquidations against asylum seeker commitments at DHS and other agencies, total FY 2023 asylum seeker liquidations increased to $1.33 billion, October 8, 2025.

As for FY 2024 costs, of the $3.70 billion committed as of October 8, 2025, $3.58 billion has been liquidated as of that date. The total outstanding has decreased due to $194 million in H+H liquidations and a $6.6 million decrease of the total H+H accrued line amount.

As part of the FY 2025 year-end close, the City created a payable of $242.9 million in outstanding FY 2025 expenses.

Projections of Asylum Seeker Shelter Census and Cost

In its May Comments on New York City’s Executive Budget, the Comptroller’s Office updated its projection to reflect recent trends and anticipate future entrance and exit rates. The updates rely on actual census trends through March 30, 2025. The Office used these projections again in its August Adopted Budget Report. As of September 2025, the actual asylum seeker census has declined slower than the Comptroller’s Office and OMB projected.

With Federal policy likely to remain highly antagonistic to immigrants, these projections are subject to considerable uncertainty.

Updated Comptroller Projection of Asylum Seeker Shelter Census (Households)

Source: Office of the New York City Comptroller; Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget

Note: Shelter census includes all households seeking asylum in City-funded shelters including those in DHS-operated shelters, HERRCs, and other facilities. The number of households is an estimate based on actual shelter census and average household sizes provided by the Office of Management and Budget.

Note: A household can be a family with children, adults living together as a family (adult parent with an adult child or adults living as partners without children), or a single adult living alone.

OMB shared that the FY 2025 per diem from July 2024 through June 2025, was $371. Information provided in the asylum seeker report to the City Council shows that the cumulative per diem (spending from July 1, 2022, through August 2025) was $371.

The Comptroller’s Office uses a daily per-diem rate to calculate annual costs. Applying a 5 percent reduction to the calculated FY 2024 per diem of $373 yields an estimated FY 2025 per diem of $354. The Comptroller’s FY 2025 projection amount is reduced again by 5 percent in FY 2026 for a per diem of $336. In FY 2027, FY 2028, and FY 2029 the Comptroller’s Office uses a per diem of $315, which the Office estimates as the floor for the daily rate for emergency shelter provision as the City moves to DHS-managed emergency shelters. OMB is targeting an FY 2026 per diem of $326, achievable through closing the most expensive sites.

The Comptroller’s Office’s lower population projections result in a lower total asylum seeker services estimate than OMB’s current budget. The Comptroller’s Office estimates total expenditures of $1.22 billion in FY 2026, declining to $341 million by FY 2029. This is $81 million less than currently budgeted by OMB for FY 2025 and $864.2 million less over the entire financial plan (FY 2026 – FY 2029). Since no Federal or State funding remains in the City’s plan for the outyears, the City would accrue the full savings from reduced expenditures.

The Comptroller’s Office will continue to monitor the actual census population and expenses and re-estimate its projections as needed.

[1] https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-office/news/2025/02/new-york-city-law-department-lawsuit-against-trump-administration-unlawful-80