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Q&A
Increase in hotel room usage for shelter
3:11:47
ยท
79 sec
Council Member Restler and DSS officials discuss the increase in hotel room usage for shelters. Key points include:
- Current usage is around 18,000 hotel rooms
- The number of hotel rooms in use has approximately doubled over the last couple of years
- At the end of 2020, there were no families with children in hotels
- The asylum seeker crisis, starting in April 2022, led to a quick pivot back to using hotels for shelter
Lincoln Restler
3:11:47
And you mentioned just a moment ago that we're currently in 18,000 hotel rooms.
3:11:55
In that post pandemic, pre asylum seeker crisis moment, what was the low point of hotel rooms that we were at sometime in 'twenty two, if anyone has that?
Molly Wasow Park
3:12:09
I don't know that we sliced it that way, but it would have I believe been under 10,000 I
Lincoln Restler
3:12:14
would So it's approximately we've doubled the number of hotel rooms in use over the last couple of years.
Molly Wasow Park
3:12:19
Let us follow-up with you.
3:12:20
I don't want to go on the record with something that isn't accurate.
Lincoln Restler
3:12:23
Fair.
3:12:23
We'll follow-up but we're on
Stephen Grimaldi
3:12:24
the record.
Lincoln Restler
3:12:25
Okay.
3:12:26
And then
Joslyn Carter
3:12:27
I would add that at the end of twenty twenty we had no families of children in hotels.
Lincoln Restler
3:12:32
That's right.
3:12:33
I remember that and we also, which was a major accomplishment.
3:12:39
And that of course is no longer the case.
Diana Ayala
3:12:41
Correct.
Lincoln Restler
3:12:42
Right.
3:12:42
So it was a two year period or so that we were two to three year period that we had no families with children, no children hotels?
Molly Wasow Park
3:12:48
It was really a matter of months.
3:12:50
Really?
3:12:50
Yes.
3:12:52
The asylum seeker crisis started in April of twenty twenty two was when we first started to see people coming in and we fairly quickly had to pivot to hotels.