Pheffer Amato Demands Transparency and Accountability
City of New York says it is getting out of the hotel business, yet some are at full capacity, or growing at the expense of communities and taxpayers
Rockaway Beach, New York – Last week Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato (D-South Queens) submitted legislation (A.9075) calling for the City of New York, and any other locality that uses hotels and motels to house homeless residents, to provide transparency on the locality’s website. The bill would require localities to disclose the monetary amount and duration of any contracts the locality gives out to hotels, motels, the non-profit operators of the site, and any subcontractors that they use while operating out of any hotel and motel.
“Time and time again we hear that the City of New York is getting out of the homeless hotel business, but that is just untrue,” Pheffer Amato said. “I have hotels in my community that are at full capacity – serving essentially as additional homeless shelters, and government agency outposts. The city is damaging economic development in neighborhoods where homeless hotels are still active, to the tune of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. Hoteliers are getting massive tax breaks and contracts from the city, essentially subsidizing and encouraging this business model, and that is unacceptable. Communities deserve to know what is happening on their streets, and which hoteliers and nonprofits are participating in this system in this city.”
In 2018, the City of New York spent $384 million in taxpayer dollars towards housing homeless residents in hotels[1]. The Industrial and Commercial Abatement Program tax break program saved homeless hotel operators $12.5 million during the last tax cycle, and $30 million over the last four years[2].
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