This article was created for Propublica’s local reporting network in collaboration with New York Focus, a research news outlet report on New York. Sign up for Dispatch to get stories in your inbox every week and sign up for the New York Focus newsletter.
Hotels have long been considered a last resort to protecting people who have lost their homes. However, over the past few years, they have become New York’s main reaction to homelessness outside of New York City.
Currently, the state’s social services agency places almost half of all individuals and families looking for shelter in hotels. However, things placed in hotels often go without the service they are supposed to receive at the shelter, such as food.
The growing dependence on hotels has been driven by rising rents, shelters closures and a surge in evictions following a pause during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The State Department of Temporary and Disability Assistance has known about the issue for many years and has rules to address issues regarding regulatory agendas. However, agents have failed to formally propose rules and come up with ways to ensure people receive the services they need.
Below are five charts to illustrate your research.
Statewide spending at hotels more than tripled from 2018 to 2024
Data Source: Office analysis of temporary and disability assistance data on emergency shelter payments. Year is accounting year. Credit: Lucas Waldron/Propublica
The number of families and individuals placed at hotels in the two years since the end of the New York eviction moratorium in 2022 has doubled as the hotel population clashed. Over that period, it has more than tripled its spending on hotels outside of New York City, bringing it to $110 million.
OTDA oversees social services districts run by state counties. Agent Commissioner Barbara Ginn said the county prefers to use shelters but doesn’t have enough beds for everyone who needs them. She said the agency has not studied the growth of hotel use.
Necessary services at the shelter and hotel
Note: Requirements are for hotels outside of New York City. New York regulations say hotels are considered shelters and require them to provide services. But there’s currently nothing needed to do that, said Anthony Farmer, a temporary disability assistance spokesman. Source: New York Codes, Rules and Regulations.
Despite increased spending, families placed in the hotel are not promised the same services as the people in the shelter. In New York, family shelters need to provide services such as childcare, helping to find housing, and meals three times a day. However, regulations generally exempt hotels.
There are exceptions. The hotel is to be considered a shelter if it serves “mainly” temporary housing recipients. OTDA spokesman Anthony Farmer interpreted the agency as “mainly” and said no hotels currently meet that standard. An analysis of agency data by New York Focus and Propovica has shown that during fiscal year 2024 it accounts for more than half of the capacity of at least 16 hotels.
Ginn said the social services offices must work within the scope of what hotel owners allow, and the county is trying to provide off-site services.
The number of individuals and families housed in hotels for more than six months has almost tripled from 2022 to 2024
Data Source: Office analysis of temporary and disability assistance data on emergency shelter payments. Year is accounting year. Stay may not be ongoing. Credit: Lucas Waldron/Propublica
Not only are more people left in hotels, they stay for a much longer period of time. The number of families and individuals spending at least six months at the hotel almost tripled between 2022 and 2024.
The lack of services leads to people getting stuck in the system and creating a snowman effect, said Steve Berg, chief policy officer for the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
“This is a growing issue,” he said. “A good shelter needs to focus on housing. Without a fair amount of substantial effort to get people back into the housing immediately and provide the services they need to do that, the shelters will be filled quickly and then they need more shelter.”
Farmer said in an email that the lack of affordable housing will help them stay longer and that the county can use other funds to help people return to permanent housing.
New York social services agents paid hotels more frequently than fair market rent for two bedroom apartments
Almost half of all payments to the hotel were more than twice the county’s FMR.
86% of hotel payments exceeded FMR
86% of hotel payments exceeded FMR
Data Source: Office analysis of temporary and disability assistance data on emergency shelter payments. Housing and Urban Development Fair Market Rental Data for 2-Bedroom Apartments in each county for the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Agency FY 2024 Financial Year 2024. Credit: Lucas Waldron/Propublica
Many hotels charge higher than permanent home rent.
The press found that the overwhelming majority of hotel payments exceeded the fair market rent for two-bedroom apartments in the same county. (Fair market rents are defined by the U.S. Agency for Housing and Urban Development. Local housing market rents and utility utilities were often more than twice that.
“We are forced to rent hotel rooms across the state, and the operators of these locations understand that,” said Sen. Roxanne Peruou, Democrat and chairman of the Chamber of Commerce’s Social Welfare Committee. “The backs of municipalities are against the wall. So they have to put someone else somewhere who doesn’t hold someone. And that’s because you understand that costs are skyrocketing because you understand that it’s an easy way for people to make money from the government.”
More than a third of hotels used to protect homeless people were outdated in social services inspections as of October 2024
37 was not inspected on time
6 had no inspection status
6 had no inspection status
37 was not inspected on time
Data Source: Analysis of temporary and disability assistance offices regarding hotel and motel inspections used in emergency shelters.
New York Focus and Propobrica have many examples of families in which children live in are eerie and dangerous situations. Cockroaches, mold, broken windows and filthy linen were common. Some hotels were subject to more than 100 emergency calls per year for assault, robbery, mental health crisis, overdose and other incidents.
Hotels protecting homeless families are supposed to be inspected every six months by the county social services office. However, data obtained from OTDA shows that many people are behind schedule. As of October, around 40% of hotels were outdated or were not listed for testing.
Farmer, a spokesman for the OTDA, said almost all hotels were tested within a year, with some people ceased to accept welfare recipients.
Commissioner Ginn said the OTDA will formally propose rules this year that make it clear that hotel people must receive the same services they receive at shelters. She also said her agency will increase oversight of how social services offices provide those services.
Her family needed housing. They spent several months at a hotel in New York and petted them for themselves.
