(The Center Square) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams plans to go ahead with a $432 million no-bid contract with a private vendor to provide emergency housing and other services for migrants, despite concerns about the deal the city’s fiscal watchdog raised.
The agreement between DocGo, a medical services provider, and the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development calls for providing housing, food and other needs for nearly 60,000 migrants currently under the city’s care. The company was hired under emergency procedures that waived the city’s standard competitive bidding requirements.
“We’re going to move forward with it,” Adams told reporters at a Wednesday press briefing. “We can’t change the rules in the middle of the game.”
The move comes despite concerns raised by City Comptroller Brad Ladler that the New York-based medical services company is “ill prepared” to handle the sheer volume of asylum-seekers requiring housing and other assistance.
“It is a medical services company, not a logistics company, social services provider or legal service provider,” Lander wrote in a letter to city officials rejecting the contract. “Numerous reports of staff mistreating or misleading asylum-seekers, failing to properly respond to reported assault incidents, and inadequate service provision further exacerbate these concerns.”
Meanwhile, New York Attorney General Letitia James has launched an investigation into allegations that DocGo has been deceiving and threatening migrants while failing to vet security officers properly.
In his remarks on Wednesday, Adams noted that Ladler’s office gave the mayor’s office the authority to fast-track contracts to provide housing and other care for newly arrived migrants.
New York City has seen an influx of nearly 100,000 asylum seekers over the past year and a surge of immigration along the U.S.-Mexico border. The surge coincided with the end of the pandemic-era Title 42 policy that required migrants to stay in Mexico while requesting asylum, which expired in May.
The city is providing housing, food and other necessities for more than 60,000 migrants in more than 200 temporary “humanitarian” shelters. New York state has already spent $1.5 billion to provide housing and other necessities for migrants, which Gov. Kathy Hochul says could rise to $4.5 billion next year.
The city’s housing agency took to social media to defend its work providing housing for newly arriving migrants, and the contract with the medical service provider.
“Let’s set the record straight,” the agency posted in a thread on X, formerly known as Twitter. “HPD + @DocGoCares have moved quickly to provide care for the influx of +100,000 Asylees. We’ve stood up new emergency sites w/ less than 12 hours notice to help ensure individuals & families aren’t forced to sleep on the street.”
“While we wait for additional, sorely needed support from the State & DC, we will continue to provide care for those in need — that’s the right thing to do in a humanitarian crisis,” the agency added. “This is an all hands-on deck crisis.”
