Whatever Happened With the State’s ‘Migrant Relocation’ Program?

Why did the state launch MRAP?

During the Biden administration, immigration at the southern border reached historic levels thanks in part to new policies around asylum and parole and global forces like economic crises in Haiti and Venezuela. Over 200,000 immigrants made their way to New York City between 2022 and 2024.

A decades-old “right to shelter” mandate compelled the city to provide temporary housing for the new arrivals, some of whom were bused in by Governor Greg Abbott of Texas. The shelter system quickly became overwhelmed. Families and officials alike were eager for a solution more permanent than adding more shelter beds, but amid a housing crunch in the city, it was difficult for newly arrived families to find apartments. Mayor Eric Adams demanded that Governor Kathy Hochul do more to help.

State lawmakers approved $25 million for a Migrant Relocation Assistance Program in spring 2023, aiming to relocate 1,250 families. In officials’ telling, the program could at once relieve crowding in city shelters, give families better housing at far less cost to the government, and help newly arrived immigrants put down roots in parts of New York with lower costs of living.

How did it work?

MRAP paid participants’ rent for a year, gave them funds to buy food, and provided them with case management services to help them look for work and enroll their kids in school.

The idea of relocation met backlash from many county administrations, who issued executive orders aimed at keeping asylum seekers out. Hochul refused a request from New York City to resettle new arrivals over local objections, leaving potential MRAP participants limited to five counties: Albany, Erie, Monroe, Suffolk, and Westchester.

Staff at New York City shelters were responsible for identifying and recruiting families to participate. Only those who had applied for asylum or another form of deportation protection were eligible. The requirement ensured that participants could qualify for work permits, but it also created a bottleneck: Applying for asylum is a complex, time-consuming process, and families struggled to navigate it soon after arriving in the city.

Did it succeed?

MRAP quickly faced criticism for its slow rollout. By August 2023, a month after it launched, New York Focus reported that MRAP had resettled exactly zero families. By the following February, The New York Times reported it had moved 174 families into permanent housing.

The pace of resettlement never really took off. Ultimately, only 671 families — some 2,000 people — participated, according to a state spokesperson. Lawmakers allocated an additional $7.5 million to the program in 2024, even though it ended up resettling half the target number of families. Meanwhile, nearly 200,000 people left the shelter system without relocation support, according to a report by the Coalition for the Homeless. Nearly 37,000 immigrants remained living in city shelters as of July.

“It was really a wan and half-hearted effort to appear to be doing something,” said Dave Giffen, executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless.

Leaders of some of the nonprofits that administered the program told New York Focus that it worked well for people who were able to participate. The Ibero-American Action League, which ran MRAP services for 363 families in Monroe and Albany counties, reported that more than 60 percent of adults were able to get jobs during their year in the program. Angélica Pérez-Delgado, Ibero’s president and CEO, said the slow rollout and now immigration arrests affecting MRAP families have overshadowed the program’s successes.

“I am sad that this environment stole our thunder to be able to say, ‘This is a cost-effective way to help people integrate and become self-sufficient in this country,’” she said.

How do participants feel about it?

New York Focus interviewed members of six MRAP families in Rochester and Buffalo. Several described the program as “a blessing” that enabled them to put down roots. One opened her own restaurant within a year of moving to Rochester, where she had no friends or relatives before she arrived.

Program administrators said some people were frustrated by long waits for work authorization and the challenge of finding jobs and child care in places where they had little preexisting community. Some left the program early. Others left the state after finishing their MRAP year, or fell out of contact with administrators.

Alexander Aparicio said he felt an almost spiritual certainty that he, his wife, and their two kids should go to Buffalo from the moment he heard it was an option. Opportunity seemed to knock at his door — like the social worker who came by their room in a New York City hotel shelter one day to discuss MRAP.