Were homeless veterans forced to move out from a hotel in Upstate New York so it could accommodate a "bus load of migrants" transported from New York City? No, that's not true: The supposed victims of the circumstances were not veterans -- according to their own words, they were homeless people from a local shelter recruited to act as if they were vets. The hotel management repeatedly refuted the claim that veterans had been forced to leave.
The story appeared in an article (archived here) published by the Daily Mail on May 13, 2023, under the title:
America's homeless veterans are booted from Upstate New York hotel to make room for bus load of migrants as Mayor Eric Adams attempts to alleviate pressure on the Big Apple
This is what it looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: Daily Mail screenshot taken on Mon May 22 17:15:26 2023 UTC)
However, the incident never took place.
Mid Hudson News, an upstate New York news site, reported that seven men admitted that they were part of the 15-person group of homeless people hired for pay at an upstate New York shelter to pretend to be veterans who were forced to move out from the Crossroads hotel in Newburgh, New York.
A hotel receptionist confirmed to Lead Stories over the phone on May 22, 2023:
That story was made up, it was never true.
The initial announcement about the supposed "evections" was made by Sharon Toney-Finch, a veteran and CEO of the Yerik Israel Toney (YIT) Foundation named after her son who died after premature birth.
New York State Assemblyman Brian Maher picked up and promoted the claim. However, he later apologized and demanded an investigation.
Other Lead Stories fact checks about immigration can be found here.
