By JOHN MCINTYRE, RYA VALLABHANENI and AMY MODESTI
COLONIE – On Saturday, May 27, at approximately 11:30 p.m., a bus of 24 migrants arrived at the Sure Stay Best Western Hotel on Wolf Road as part of a relocation program from New York City. According to local officials, the problem is not that migrants came to the town, but rather they did not know who was coming, how long they would be staying, who would eventually pay the bill and what motivated New York Mayor Eric Adams to choose Colonie as the destination.
Prior to the arrival of migrants to Colonie, Adams, through a contractor not-for-profit agency DocGo, booked 100 rooms at the Sure Stay Hotel for three months to house 400 migrants, even though Albany County Executive Dan McCoy issued a state of emergency and order on Tuesday, May 23. The order specified that before migrant families could be resettled in Albany County, there must be communication and coordination with the county from the agency presenting the families. New York City sent the first bus to Colonie without communicating where it was going or who was on it.
The problem with sending migrants to Colonie is that the town has an eight-year-old law in place that does not allow hotels to rent rooms for more than 28 days. The local law passed in 2015 was aimed at preventing motels from being used as substandard apartments. At the time, Colonie was having a significant public safety problem with people living in unsafe conditions for long periods of time in hotels and motels along Central Avenue. This prompted the change to section 119 of the town code that says that people cannot stay more than 28 consecutive days or more than 60 days in a 180-day period.
According to Colonie Town Supervisor Peter Crummey, the bus was originally headed to the City of Albany, but that understanding changed on Friday night, May 26. The next day he filed, and the town received on Sunday, a consent order from the NY Third Judicial District to stop three more busloads of migrants slated to arrive at the hotel during the weekend until a hearing on June 9.
“I had to sue to slow things down,” Crummey said in an interview last week.
In a written statement on May 27, Crummey summarized the situation.
“Late (Friday), on the eve of Memorial Day Weekend, I was notified by our Albany County executive that NYC Mayor Adams has unilaterally directed at least one busload of migrants from New York City to arrive this weekend at the Sure Stay Best Western Motel on Wolf Road in Colonie,” he said.
“Further information revealed that the initial intended destination of the bus was the City of Albany, a self-designated sanctuary city. For reasons not articulated, city officials, in direct derogation of the apparent values expressed by such designation, suggested that the occupants of a bus be housed at the Sure Stay Best Western on Wolf Road,” he continued.
Two days earlier, McCoy said he was in conversations with Governor Kathy Hochul’s office, New York City officials, Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan and not-for-profit agencies coordinating the moving of the migrants. Crummey and McCoy both said Colonie officials were not included in any conversations even though Colonie may have been the intended destination all along.
“The (NY) City shut down all conversations at 5 p.m. on Friday night and they said [the migrants] were coming,” McCoy said. “We were supposed to have a meeting on Saturday morning, but that was canceled.”
On Saturday, Deputy Colonie Police Chief Robert Winn contacted the hotel management as well as a high-ranking official at DocGo, the not-for-profit hired to coordinate the movement and care of the migrants. He asked both why they chose Colonie and questioned if New York City officials confused Wolf Road as Albany because the Sure Stay Hotel’s mailing address is Albany.
“We were told by the manager of the hotel that they had reservations for 100 rooms for three months for this purpose,” Winn said. “They are housing four people in each room.”
Winn also spoke with a high-ranking official of DocGo and was told that because Texas sent migrants to New York City without coordination or approval, New York City could do the same to Colonie.
According to Winn, the hotel manager said he explained to New York officials that the hotel was in the town of Colonie and also informed them about the town’s 28-day stay limitation.
“He said he informed officials that this was Colonie and not Albany,” Winn said. “They said they were coming anyway.”
“It seems that [city officials] don’t care as much about [the migrants] as they were looking to score political points,” Crummey said. “This isn’t about the welfare and the best situation for the people on the buses.”
Winn said that he has given sworn statements about his interviews with the Sure Stay Hotel manager and DocGo CEO Anthony Capone to be used at the June 9 court hearing.
As part of the consent order, all parties agreed to not send additional buses to Colonie until the hearing, which have been redirected by New York City to two hotels in the City of Albany.
The office of New York City Mayor Eric Adams has agreed on Wednesday, May 31, to coordinate with Albany County as it continues the resettlement of migrants.
The agreement came Wednesday after a conversation between County Executive Dan McCoy and Adams’ administration and as a fourth bus carrying asylum-seekers is headed Wednesday evening to the Capital District, the Times Union reported.
“After initial challenges with communication, I am happy to report that we have an agreement for better communication and coordination with New York City as asylum-seekers are relocated,” McCoy said in a statement.
Questions about who will pay
Right now, the financial responsibility of taking care of migrants that have been relocated from NYC falls on the city itself, as a part of a long-standing “right to shelter” obligation. The policy has been in place for over 40 years, after a court in 1981 required NYC to provide temporary housing for any homeless person seeking it. But in recent weeks, NYC Mayor Eric Adams has asked courts to suspend this policy.
Adams’ request was made largely in light of the arrival of more than 70,000 migrants since last spring. Although he said he does not wish to permanently suspend the right to shelter in the city, he is seeking “clarity from the court.”
“Given that we’re unable to provide care for an unlimited number of people and are already overextended, it is in the best interest of everyone, including those seeking to come to the United States, to be upfront that New York City cannot single-handedly provide care to everyone crossing our border,” he said in a statement on May 23.
The Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless have filed legal opposition to Adams’ request, claiming that suspension of the city’s right-to-shelter policy would force people to sleep in unsafe public places.
About two weeks prior to making his request, Adams loosened some right-to-shelter rules that were already in place, in light of the expiration of Title 42 on May 11. Changes to policies included relaxing a rule that required the city to find beds for people within a certain timeframe, and suspending a rule that prohibits families with children from being housed in congregate settings.
If the right to shelter is suspended, where the financial responsibility of taking care of migrants that have been relocated north of the city will fall becomes unclear. Right now, NYC assumes all of these costs, but if the suit goes through, some could be directed to the counties currently housing migrants.
According to McCoy, Albany County is having trouble finding housing for its own residents that are experiencing homelessness. He said there are already over 725 people that county agencies are trying to find housing for. This has been exacerbated by the closing of two of the seven homeless shelters located in the county, he said.
“Like many communities across our state and country, Albany County is facing a housing crisis, with an unprecedented shortage of emergency housing available to support individuals experiencing homelessness,” he wrote in his emergency declaration. “Our Department of Social Services works daily to address these shortfalls, but continues to face difficulties in identifying adequate emergency housing and providing supportive services to those in need of such housing.”
“Sending migrants to us without a plan in place is not the answer. We need direct communication with Mayor Adams to find the best solution, so this isn’t creating further chaos,” McCoy said on Tuesday.
All of the leaders involved in the situation agree on one thing: This crisis was caused by national immigration policy and financial responsibility should be on the Federal government. However, that is not happening at this point and none think it is going to happen soon enough to help migrants currently in New York.
On Thursday, McCoy issued an update on the situation.
“We have learned through our communications with New York City and their vendor, DocGo, that approximately 90% of asylum seekers in Albany County are employed in less than a week,” McCoy said. “The latest update is that we have approximately 175 migrants in three hotels in Albany County.”
It is unclear what the employment status of what we are told are 24 single-men living at the Sure Stay. Spotlight News was told by county officials last week that the men could not work until they received permission from federal authorities.
“Additionally, we’re continuing to have conversations with DocGo, our county departments and community partners to offer gap services that may exist to asylum seekers as needed,” McCoy said.
Winn said that there have been no problems at the Sure Stay since the migrants arrived. DocGo has its own private security team of 12 people at the hotel, some of whom are former New York City police officers.
Spotlight News attempted to talk to the hotel management, but was told by management to leave the property. We were escorted out by DocGo security personnel.