NYC to Spend $250M on Hotel Rooms for Patients and Health Workers
By Chava Gourarie April 14, 2020 5:10 pm
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New York City has entered into a $250 million contract with CrewFacilities.com to organize the use of hotel rooms for patients and health care workers in need of temporary lodging due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Texas-based CrewFacilities.com will manage the logistics of transforming New York City hotels into spaces where people can safely isolate, according to Politico, which first reported news of the deal. The rooms will be available for patients released from the hospital, health care workers and other first responders who are exposed to the virus daily, as well as people showing symptoms who live in crowded conditions.
The deal, executed by the city’s Office of Emergency Management, closed in early April.
Mayor Bill de Blasio had previously discussed using the city’s hotel inventory to ease the strain on hospitals. “They have really simple things they do to flip a switch, basically, and turn a hotel into a hospital,” he said during a March 30 press conference. “We’re going to be doing that to the tune of thousands and thousands of rooms.”
In response to the crisis, around 60 hotel owners have offered their rooms for between $100 and $125 a night, Commercial Observer reported, which would be at cost. Four Seasons owner Ty Warner went a step further and offered rooms, which usually start at $500, to medical workers for free.
The mayor has also been working with hotels to house members of the homeless population who have tested positive for the coronavirus.
CrewFacilities.com did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
