- U.S. government adviser Elon Musk claimed on his social media platform, X, that FEMA sent $59 million in the week beginning Feb. 3 to "luxury hotels" in New York City to house immigrants living illegally in the U.S.
- The New York City comptroller's office said the city actually had received $80.5 million worth of FEMA funds in early February that were then revoked by the federal government. One of the FEMA payments received and revoked amounted to around $59 million.
- The funds came from FEMA's Shelter and Services Program, which reimburses nonfederal entities for costs incurred from migrant arrivals, including housing. That program is separate from FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund, meaning that U.S. Congress apportioned funding to the Shelter and Securities Program specifically to cover costs associated with migrant arrivals.
- The New York City mayor's office said only $19 million of the $59 million payment was spent on hotel costs and that the city was not paying "luxury rates" for hotel rooms. A July 2024 report from the city comptroller's office found that New York was, "with few exceptions," paying market rate for hotel rooms used to house asylum-seekers.
On Feb. 10, 2025, tech mogul and U.S. government adviser Elon Musk posted (archived) on X that his team at the newly created Department of Government Efficiency had discovered the Federal Emergency Management Agency sent $59 million to "luxury hotels" in New York City in the week beginning Feb. 3 to house immigrants living illegally in the U.S.
New York City did receive around $59 million and some additional funds at the start of February from FEMA's Shelter and Services Program, which allocates money to nonfederal entities, like cities, to offset the cost of migrant arrivals, including housing. Congress apportions this money separately from the funding it designates for disaster relief.
However, contrary to Musk's claim, the money was a reimbursement for expenses already paid by the city — not paid directly to hotels, "luxury" or otherwise. Of the approximately $59 million awarded by FEMA, $19 million went to hotel costs, according to the New York City mayor's office. The city was not paying "luxury rates" for hotels, the mayor's office said.
Following Musk's Feb. 10 X post, Cameron Hamilton, the acting head of FEMA, said on X that the payments in question were suspended and that "personnel will be held accountable." The Department of Homeland Security fired four FEMA employees, including the agency's chief financial officer, on Feb. 11. The DHS, of which FEMA is an agency, claimed the four staffers had circumvented leadership to "make egregious payments for luxury NYC hotels for migrants."
On Feb. 12, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander told reporters that $80.5 million of FEMA funds was revoked from New York City on Feb. 11 after the city received the money the previous week.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams also posted (archived) about the funds on Feb. 12, saying the money was awarded in 2024 but not disbursed until "last week." Both Adams and Lander said they would attempt to recoup the funds.
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs for the DHS, said in a statement (archived) on Feb. 12 that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem had "clawed back" the money mentioned by Musk on Feb. 10 and identified by Lander and Adams as FEMA Shelter and Services Program funds. Noem said the money was used to fund "NYC migrant hotels."
The city comptroller's office confirmed via email that the DHS sent the funds to New York on Feb. 4 and that the money was seized on Feb. 12. According to Lander, the seized funds consisted of $58.6 million from FEMA's Shelter and Services Program - Allocated and $21.9 million from FEMA's Shelter and Services Program - Competitive. Musk's Feb. 10 statement likely referred to just the SSP-A payment. Lander's numbers align, with slight variations, with those published on FEMA's website. However, while SSP funds do sometimes cover housing for immigrants, the fund's scope is wider than that, covering "services associated with noncitizen migrant arrivals" in the awarded communities, according to FEMA's website.
Liz Garcia, a spokesperson for the mayor's office, said $19 million of the $58.6 million SSP-A award was spent on hotel costs, contrary to Musk's claim that $59 million was disbursed for that purpose. Garcia told local media outlets the funds were reimbursement for direct hotel costs incurred by the city. The remainder of the $58.6 million was spent by the city on other shelters, food, security and other costs, Garcia confirmed to Snopes. Garcia also said in the reported statement that the city was not paying "luxury rates" for hotels, as Musk claimed.
According to a report by New York's comptroller released in July 2024, 49,460 asylum-seekers stayed in hotels paid for by the city at the end of May 2024. The average daily rate for asylum-seeker hotels across the city and Yonkers in January 2024 was $156, where those hotel rates were negotiated through a Department of Homeless Services agreement with the Hotel Association of New York City. The report further argued that "with few exceptions, the City is paying market rate for the hotel rooms" where the rates were negotiated with the hotel group.
Musk further claimed on X that the FEMA payments to New York "violated the law" and were an "insubordination of Trump's executive order." It was unclear exactly which law or executive order Musk was referring to — in fact, the money originally was made available to bodies like the New York City Office of Management and Budget by the U.S. Congress.
The X post also claimed that the money sent to New York City was "meant for American disaster relief and instead is being spent on high end hotels for illegals." However, FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund, from which states can seek support during domestic disasters, is a separate fund from the SSP. FEMA cannot reallocate funds to other programs — for example transfer funds from the DRF to the SSP — without congressional approval.
FEMA allocated the following SSP funds to the New York City Office of Management and Budget in fiscal year 2024, according to the agency's website:
- SSP-A Round 1: $38,864,884
- SSP-A Round 2: $20,437,241.07
- SSP-C: $20,437,241.07
The agency distributed a total of $640.9 million in fiscal year 2024 to nonfederal entities across the country through the SSP-A and SSP-C awards. Though the money for New York City was allocated in 2024, it was not paid to the city until February 2025, according to the comptroller's office.