Dumping ground
Homeless sent to B’klyn hotel
Dozens of homeless men were moved into a Downtown Brooklyn boutique hotel Friday — just days after Mayor de Blasio said he’s looking to end the emergency coronavirus shelter program.
At four different times, The Post observed four yellow buses drop off more than 40 vagrants with their belongings in trash bags at the Hotel Indigo on Duffield Street, where a front door sign said it “cannot accommodate reservations” for guests and redirected those with reservations to a nearby Sheraton hotel.
An NYPD cop on site confirmed that there were no homeless residents living at the hotel between Fulton and Willoughby streets prior to Friday and city sources said it is being converted into a men’s shelter.
A worker from the Bowery Residents Committee, a homeless nonprofit, was seen moving boxes with computers and metal detectors into the hotel.
Locals griped over the new development, especially since another hotel, Aloft, just steps away from Indigo, opened as a temporary homeless shelter three weeks ago.
“I’m no one to say where these people have to go. The only problem I have is that they’re very dirty,” said Belen Lopez, 34, a graphic designer who lives in a nearby luxury building.
“I used to take my [2-year-old] daughter to the park here . . . now it’s dirty. They drink and they smoke. You can always smell the smoke every time I come out,” said Lopez.
The mom called the area, where rents run $4,000 to $5,000 monthly for a two-bedroom, “a disaster,” and explained, “We can’t go there anymore . . . We don’t feel safe anymore.”
Angel Serate, 42, who lives directly across the street from Indigo, said he felt helpless.
“There is nothing I can do. It’s what the city wants. I just hope that everybody will be respectful and keep the peace,” said Serate, who claimed that the homeless tenants already residing on the block “make garbage” and loiter.
A 33-year-old resident at the nearby Avalon Willoughby Square building said: “The concentration [of homeless people] seems to be skyrocketing. We’ve had three to four shootings in the last few weeks.”
Another local railed, “This used to be a beautiful block — now it’s completely changed.”