Daniel Barber, who represents New York City’s nearly 340,000 public housing tenants, says Democrat city officials are throwing millions in taxpayer money at newly arrived border crossers and illegal aliens while forgetting about poor New Yorkers.
Barber, chair of the Citywide Council of Presidents of New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) Tenant Associations, indirectly blasted plans by Mayor Eric Adams (D) and Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) that is set to spend at least $600 million on hotel rooms, subsidized public housing, and public school needs for thousands of border crossers and illegal aliens arriving on buses every week from Texas.
In an interview with the New York Post, Barber said Democrat city officials are wrapped up in getting help to migrants even as poor New Yorkers suffer with insufficient housing and a lack of job opportunities.
“The city is going to put forth a ton of money for these people who aren’t even citizens, but they forgot about the people who live in public housing right here,” Barber told the Post:
“They are going to train a bunch of people coming into the country, but those already here who apply through hoops to get in, can’t get in,” said Barber, who represents every person living in the 335 housing developments in the five boroughs as their elected president. [Emphasis added]
…
“I’ve seen better conditions in shanty towns in developing countries,” he said. “We have scaffolding that has been up for 15 to 20 years and nothing is being done. We have water that is seeping into people’s apartments, we have boarded up windows that never get fixed. We need help.” [Emphasis added]
Months ago, when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) started sending migrant buses to the sanctuary city of New York City, Adams told New Yorkers to get “on board” with waves of illegal immigration burdening schools, infrastructure, homeless shelters, and subways.
The latest estimates show that the roughly 24,000 border crossers and illegal aliens that have arrived in New York City will cost taxpayers at least $600 million and an additional $250 million if another 10,000 border crossers and illegal aliens arrive in the coming months.
Meanwhile, city officials have turned the migrant buses into a cash boon for hotel owners who are scoring large contracts to house hundreds of border crossers and illegal aliens including in Staten Island and Manhattan.
In the meantime, New Yorkers continue facing a housing crisis that has priced out working and middle class residents from buying or renting. Buying has become even more difficult as interest rates are over seven percent.
Real estate investors and developers are some of the biggest beneficiaries of mass immigration to the U.S. Immigration-driven population growth, set to bring the U.S. population to more than 400 million by 2060, is likely to send housing prices even higher.
A 2017 study published in the Journal of Housing Economics found that “increases in immigration into a metropolitan statistical area are linked with rising rents and home prices in that metropolitan statistical area and neighboring metropolitan statistical areas.”
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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