Upstate New York hotels reportedly kicked homeless veterans from their properties to make room for migrants being bused to the region from New York City. The homeless veterans, many Vietnam-era veterans, were receiving temporary shelter in the hotels through the efforts of a nonprofit agency.
UPDATE May 19, 2023: A report from the Mid Hudson News indicates the story of veterans being displaced from hotels in favor of migrants is a hoax. Breitbart News is investigating and will report further updates as we learn more.
Original story continues:
The New York Post reports that nearly two dozen homeless veterans “have been booted from the upstate hotels to make room for migrants.” One of the hotels told a 24-year-old Afghanistan war veteran their temporary housing was being pulled out from under them and they would have to move somewhere else.
Sharon Toney-Finch, CEO of the Yerik Israel Toney Foundation, told the New York Post, “Our veterans have been placed in another hotel due to what’s going on with the immigrants.”
Toney-Finch said they moved the veterans from the Crossroads Hotel in Newburgh, New York, to other nearby motels and hotels. The properties were located about 20 minutes from where they were displaced.
Orange County, New York, is now the target of a migrant busing campaign by New York City Mayor Eric Adams. The mayor is moving the migrants out of his sanctuary city to Upstate New York to relieve migrant overcrowding in his city.
Migrants board a city bus to a shelter intake center after traveling on a bus from Del Rio, Texas, to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City on Saturday, May 13, 2023. (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The veterans had been placed in the first hotel under a four-week temporary housing program while the nonprofit agency attempted to find another solution for their housing needs. The veterans were about two weeks into the program “when they got the boot,” Toony-Finch stated.
“A lot of them are Vietnam veterans. We do help them on a constant basis to get them benefits and help them find a place in society,” she explained, adding, “Now we have to work from ground zero. We just lost that trust [with the vets].”
Republican New York State Assemblyman Brian Maher told the Post, “Shining a light on this is important because we need to make sure these hotels know how important it is to respect the service of our veterans before they kick [them] out of hotels to make room.”
New York Democrat Congressman Pat Ryan, whose 18th congressional district covers the northern suburbs and exurbs of New York City, took to social media to condemn the “incompetence” of city officials in displacing the homeless veterans.
New York Republican Congressman Marc Molinaro also took to social media to denounce the “absolutely inexcusable” treatment of the homeless veterans, which he described as “the result of incompetence and lack of compassion.”
Tooney-Finch said the hotel made the move to expel the veterans based on money. “They get paid more [for the migrants],” she stated. “That’s so unfair, because at the end of the day, we are a small nonprofit, and we do pay $88 a day for a veteran to be there.”
It is not clear what the city is paying for the housing of the bused migrants from New York City.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.