Eric Adams announced the release of the city’s budget for fiscal year 2026 from City Hall this afternoon, shoring up a number of programs thanks to savings generated from a strong economy and higher tax revenue, as well as a re-evaluation of costs associated with managing the inflow of asylum seekers and migrants, which the mayor’s office says amount to $3.4 billion in total savings. In a press briefing following the announcement, the mayor indicated that the strong numbers will make politicking over the details with the City Council less challenging going forward. “Anytime you can do a budget and not have the c-term – the ‘cut’ term – it makes it easier,” Adams said. “This probably was the shortest number of questions we received from the Council and from [City Comptroller] Brad [Lander]. Brad asked us three questions, and the first one was ‘when is your birthday?’”
While Adams appeared to be riding the high of an unqualified win, new concerns were raised about homelessness in the city, with the budget announcement including the addition of $554 million to combat homelessness over the next year. This might have been expected given the federal government’s recent analysis that found a spike of over 50% in the city’s homeless population, and the issue has indeed been prominent in Adams’ rhetoric of late, as action on homelessness was a major part of his State of the City address last week. In today’s briefing, however, Adams claimed for the first time that the recent spike is a due to internal migration within the United States.
“We are seeing an increase in the shelter population – not migrants and asylum seekers, but other parts of the country,” the mayor said. “There’s a substantial number of people from other parts of the country are coming to New York City now. We don’t know if it’s because of the disasters in their areas, or if there was so much conversation in the universe about right-to-shelter that everyone is coming to New York.” According to the mayor’s budget, total expenditure on homeless shelters has been re-estimated and will exceed $900 million for the year.
Asked to elaborate about his claims, Adams was short on details, saying that the city government is currently doing an analysis to “try to drill down on the reasons” as to why this is happening. “We are seeing an extraordinary number that we want to get a full understanding,” the mayor said. “We don’t have an answer to that question right now.”
