Mayor Adams is set to unveil a $114.5 billion city government budget proposal Thursday that includes more than $500 million in new homeless shelter funding, according to documents reviewed by the Daily News.
The documents, obtained by The News ahead of the mayor’s formal afternoon budget announcement, says the new $554.2 million investment will be used to address the city’s “growth in the non-asylum seeker shelter population.” Additional details on what the money will be spent on wasn’t immediately available.
The shelter cash infusion comes after the city’s shelter population has reached historic highs, largely due to the influx of tens of thousands of mostly Latin American migrants and asylum seekers.
But the population of longtime New Yorkers living in the shelter system has also increased as rents and cost of living in the city continues to surge.
The $114.5 billion proposal from Adams marks the start of his office’s negotiations with the City Council before the two sides must reach a deal on a city government budget by the July 1 start of the 2026 fiscal year.
Throughout the previous budget cycles under his tenure, Adams’ office has consistently projected lower tax revenues than the Council and made deep cuts to city agencies amid heavy spending on the migrant crisis.
But in Thursday’s preliminary budget bid, the documents obtained by The News show Adams, who’s up for reelection this year, projects a 5.6% increase in revenue in the current 2025 fiscal year, even higher than the 3.7% uptick forecasted by the Council.
The mayor is proposing to use that tax revenue rise to fund the shelter investment and other initiatives, including some education programs, the documents say.