'Dangerous precedent' — Mayor caves to wealthy Manhattanites in shelter-hotel fight, critics say
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Mayor Bill de Blasio defended his decision to remove homeless New Yorkers from an Upper West Side hotel Wednesday. Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
By David Brand
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s decision to move 300 homeless New Yorkers out of an Upper West Side hotel and back into the shelter system faced sharp rebukes Wednesday from homeless advocates and some elected officials who say the city caved to backlash from residents in one of the nation’s wealthiest zip codes.
Critics of the decision say the move sets a precedent that wealthy Manhattanites will get their way if they complain loudly enough — a luxury that residents elsewhere in the city are not afforded and a process that ignores the interests of the very people experiencing homelessness.
“That’s what it looks like right here,” said Councilmember Barry Grodenchik, whose district includes a hotel used to house homeless New Yorkers after their release from jail.
“It might set a precedent,” he said of de Blasio’s decision. “I found it unusual that that would happen. Usually the city fights those lawsuits.”
During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the city began moving individuals experiencing homelessness out of barracks-style shelters — where adults often sleep a dozen to a room — and into two-person hotel rooms to limit the spread of the coronavirus. One of those sites was the Lucerne Hotel on West 79th Street.
For weeks, some Upper West Side residents played up accounts of reportedly homeless men using drugs, having sex outside and menacing community members near the Lucerne to bolster their opposition to the shelter-hotel. Their outrage fueled reams of negative tabloid coverage and they enlisted attorney Randy Mastro, a former deputy mayor, to sue the city.
De Blasio on Tuesday night ordered the Department of Homeless Services to move the men into family shelters, which feature apartment-style units where the men can isolate from their peers. He also ordered the city to clear out a hotel used to house homeless New Yorkers in Long Island City.
Coalition for the Homeless Executive Director Dave Giffen framed de Blasio’s decision in starker terms than Grodenchik, saying the mayor chose to “capitulate to the NIMBYist voices on the Upper West Side.”
Clearing the hotel is “a sad victory for the well-heeled and well-connected whose fear mongering and intolerance disgrace our city,” he said. “It is inhumane and just plain wrong, and the mayor should be ashamed.”
Legal Aid’s top civil attorney, Judith Goldiner, said the decision sets a “dangerous precedent” that will erode the city’s ability to defend future shelter-siting decisions.
During a press briefing Wednesday De Blasio shot down the notion that his decision set a precedent by caving to the anti-homeless and anti-shelter advocacy of wealthy Manhattanites.
“I disagree entirely with that assessment,” he said. “This gets back to a much more fundamental reality. First of all, we want to always be focused on what's healthy and safe for the community, and for folks who are homeless.”
De Blasio said the city had previously moved homeless New Yorkers out of a hotel in Southeast Queens in addition to the Long Island City lodgings Tuesday. The city will continue moving thousands of homeless New Yorkers out of the hotels and back into the shelter system.
He told reporters he made the final decision to clear the Lucerne Hotel after finding the conditions “unacceptable.”
De Blasio has committed to ending the use of hotels to house homeless New Yorkers as part of his “Turning the Tide on Homelessness” plan. Yet, the number of people staying in city-funded hotel rooms rose even before the pandemic compelled the city to move about 9,500 people into 63 commercial hotels across the city.
The number of homeless people that the city puts up in commercial hotel rooms increased by 44 percent between 2017 and January 2020, City Limits reported.
With the citywide COVID-19 below 2 percent, De Blasio said he would refocus on its commitment to phasing out hotels as temporary residences.
“Years ago, we said very clearly we need to get out of hotels as a matter of policy, as a matter of just doing what's right for the people in New York City, having lots of homeless folks in hotels was not good for anybody,” he said.
Upper West Side Councilmember Helen Rosenthal said de Blasio’s decision came at an odd time — the city and the organization providing services at the Lucerne had addressed the safety and health issues raised by local residents weeks ago, she said on Twitter.
“While there were problems at first, now there is no [crisis] point,” she tweeted. “Over the past 3 weeks, things have settled down. Also, the amount of services at the new building will be no different than the ones they are getting now. Same provider.”
Rosenthal also referenced a conversation she had with homeless New Yorkers who were staying at the Lucerne.
“Last week I met with some of the Lucerne clients who asked me, “why do they hate us so much?” she tweeted.
