Audit Finds NYC Overpaid Upstate Hotels By Millions For Sheltering Illegal Immigrants

Authored by Cara Ding via The Epoch Times,

A new audit by the New York City Comptroller’s Office found the city overpaid upstate hotels and other subcontractors by millions to shelter illegal immigrants last spring.

The audit also finds sizable undue commission payments to DocGo, a main city contractor responsible for running temporary shelters in the metro area at an annual cost of $432 million.

DocGo was one of a few city contractors tasked with developing upstate hotels-turned-shelters last May, a novel city practice that auditors deem “unusual,” and has met with strong opposition from several upstate counties, including Rockland and Orange.

Although the city’s DocGo contract has been running for over a year, the audit only looks at city payments for services rendered in the beginning months of May and June last year.

The audit covers more than 30 temporary hotels-turned-shelters managed by DocGo both inside and outside the city, including two in the town of Newburgh in Orange County.

It finds that as high as 80 percent of payments for that two-month period—at $11 million—either lack proof of services rendered or are unauthorized per the contract.

Of the questionable payments, $2.5 million were for unauthorized security, medical, and social services, $1.7 million for vacant rooms, and $230,000 for inflated food bills, according to the audit.

For example, a Newburgh hotel billed a total of $57,000 for hundreds of unoccupied rooms in early May, for which DocGo got an additional $40,000 in commissions.

At the same hotel, billed hours of security services for May 12 exceeded the contract limit by eight times—it was claimed over 20 guards were on different shifts that day to aid the hotel’s own force—and were paid without the city’s written approval.

The same Newburgh hotel also stood out as having the highest number of meals delivered during the two-month period. For example, it billed 1,288 meals for May 26, whereas only 388 meals and snacks would be needed that day based on the stated occupancy.

Hundreds of illegal immigrants or asylum seekers lined up outside of the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in New York City on June 6, 2023. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)

All payments were made by the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), which has direct oversight of DocGo and its subcontractors.

In response to auditors, HPD said it had given undocumented verbal permission to payments beyond the scope of the contract, that it paid for vacant hotel rooms in preparation for a likely sudden influx, and that excess food was sometimes purchased and stored for future use.

The Epoch Times reached out to Mayor Eric Adams and DocGo for comment.

Upstate Hotel Visits

Auditors visited around two dozen hotels in the New York City metro area last December and found 530 rooms at eight upstate hotels housed illegal immigrants from the city.

These hotels were in the counties of Albany, Westchester, Dutchess, and Orange, where two Newburgh hotels had 122 rooms used as city shelters.

Orange County has had an effective court-ordered temporary ban against the city’s upstate hotel shelter practice since last May. Prior to the ban, the city had sent 186 illegal immigrants to the two Newburgh hotels, according to a court filing at the state supreme court.

County attorney Richard Golden told The Epoch Times in an Aug. 9 statement that he has no knowledge of new arrivals from the city to any county hotels after the ban.

The county also has an executive order in place barring New York City from establishing unlawful shelters inside the county, which withheld a legal challenge last month.

The largest portion—nearly half—of surveyed illegal immigrants during the hotel visits are from Venezuela, followed by Ecuador, Colombia, and Mauritania.

Most entered the country illegally via the southern border in Texas, with a relatively small number arriving via the states of California, Arizona, and New York, according to the audit.

During their visits to these hotels, auditors found deficiencies—such as missing microwaves and refrigerators, mold, and water damage—in 80 percent of the inspected rooms.

DocGo will manage upstate hotels for the city until December, although its shelter services inside NYC ended in May, according to the audit.

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander is challenging Adams in the Democratic primary for the mayoral race in the fall of 2025.