Senegalese business owner DEFENDS charging 87 migrants $300k-a-year to live in his cramped basement and says they're now 'in the streets' instead of shelter promised to them by Eric Adams : 'We have to help ourselves!'

A Senegalese business owner has defended charging 87 migrants over $300k a year to sleep in his basement. 

Eboue Sarr had been charging a monthly fee of $300 for shelter and food, earning himself $26,100 a month, or $313,000 a year in the process. 

Officials made the shocking discovery on Monday during a building inspection at the business in Queens after a 311 call prompted an investigation. 

The 311 call had been made to complain about a large number of e-bikes in the rear yard of the property.

Speaking earlier today, Sarr said: 'This was their choice, they choose to be here than being over there in the shelter. 

'If you ask each and everyone of them they will tell you this, they did not want to go.'

Eboue Sarr had been charging a monthly fee of $300 for shelter and food, earning himself $26,1000 a month, or $313,000 a year in the process, according to police

Officials made the shocking discovery on Monday during a building inspection at the business in Queens, seen here, after a 311 call prompted an investigation

The migrants were transported to a migrant shelter in the Bronx and a vacate order has been issued for the building over safety concerns following the discovery

The FDNY said that around 40 beds were found on the ground floor of the property and in the cellar. 

The migrants were transported to a migrant shelter in the Bronx and a vacate order has been issued for the building over safety concerns following the discovery.

Sarr continued: 'They[the city] promise that they have places for them. They lie, there was no beds. They end up in the streets again roaming around.

'We came up with this idea that we can do this on our own, so we came up with a strategy to put this money together to help ourselves.

'They have lied to them in the past, they are lying again. We have to change the way we are doing things. We are all human, we are all equal.'

'Safety was our number one priority, I hope they change their laws. People can not be sleeping around on the streets like animals, like dogs.

'Even animals don't sleep on the streets, how about human beings. They don't care because it is not their people.'

Fire officials added that they eventually found that people were taking turns to sleep due to the limited number of beds. Most of the migrants are from Senegal.

About 40 beds were found on the ground floor and in the cellar, according to the FDNY

Fire officials said they eventually found that people were taking turns to sleep due to the limited number of beds 

The 311 call had been made to complain about a large number of e-bikes in the rear yard of the property

On Tuesday, Sarr told PIX11 that he had been providing them with breakfast, lunch and dinner. 

There were two bathrooms available, with Sarr explaining that he had been giving out memberships to Planet Fitness so those living in the basement could shower.

On Tuesday, deputy mayor for housing Maria Torres-Springer said: 'What we discovered last night in some ways is also symptomatic of a larger crisis that this city is facing that we’ve talked about repeatedly in terms of the housing shortage in this city.

'It is not a new thing that too many people make desperate choices about where to live and what to pay for and at the root of that is the fact that we haven’t built enough housing.'

Meanwhile Adams is accused of wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on migrants by doling out no-bid contracts.

City Comptroller Brad Lander made the claim in an audit of migrant-related contracts released on Tuesday, identifying 340 asylum-seeker contracts representing an estimated contract value of $5.7 billion.

Recently arrived migrants wait at a bus stop outside Floyd Bennet Field shelter on February 21, 2024 in the Brooklyn borough of New York

Mayor Adams, seen here, announced his administration will cut an additional 10 percent in migrant spending and pause drastic budget cuts to other departments last week

Migrants pick up clothes as mutual aid groups distribute food and clothes under cold weather near the Migrant Assistance Center at St. Brigid Elementary School last month in New York

Most of those contracts were procured on an emergency basis, allowing the city to waive the usual competitive bidding requirements, according to the audit.

In one case, a vendor charged the city $185.63 per hour for shelter supervisors, totaling nearly $1,500 per eight-hour shift.

The audit notes that the city's migrant crisis has been ongoing since the spring of 2022, with Adams' state of emergency declaration coming in October of that year, and questions why contracts are still being procured on an emergency basis.

Last week, Adams announced his administration will cut an additional 10 percent in migrant spending and pause drastic budget cuts to other departments after he was slammed for giving migrants taxpayer funded debit cards.

The Big Apple has been inundated with an influx of migrants it cost taxpayers $12.65 billion in 2023, a sum that the mayor's office vows to reduce down to $10.6 billion in the fiscal year of 2025.

More than 170,000 migrants have arrived in the city since the spring of 2022, and the crisis is only deepening as they continue to be bussed from Texas where record numbers are entering.