Homeless vacating city hotels
Thousands of homeless New Yorkers are finally being moved from city hotels and back into shelters this week.
The exodus, announced by Mayor de Blasio last week, will ultimately see around 8,000 homeless moved out of 60 hotels.
One of the first to be cleared was the Lucerne, the Upper West Side hotel that was a lightning rod for neighbors’ complaints that the area was being overrun and becoming crime-infested.
Just 68 homeless remained at the West 79th Street hotel at the end of Monday, the first day of the move, compared to 230 at the start of the day, WCBS/Channel 2 reported.
Others were seen being moved Tuesday from The Blakely on West 55th Street and The Kixby on West 35th Street.
“There’s no other choice. What else am I going to do?” Daniel Freeman, one of those being moved from the Lucerne, told Channel 2, comparing the move to an eviction. “I wish they would leave us right here just until my housing comes through,” he said, admitting that he feared he’d instead be “heading to jail.”
City officials have insisted that relocating the homeless from shared shelter rooms to hotels helped “flatten the curve” during the most alarming stages of the coronavirus pandemic.
But Hizzoner said June 23 that it was time to move them back into congregate shelters due to “greatly improved” pandemic metrics, with record-low COVID-19 levels and restrictions lifted.
“It is time to move homeless folks who were in hotels for a temporary period of time back to shelters, where they can get the support they need,” said de Blasio during his daily press conference.
“In shelters is where we can provide support, a variety of services, and that pathway out of shelter and into a better life.”
The initial housing in hotels had sparked a flood of complaints, including legal battles to move them that eventually failed. But as the temporary residents started moving out, some locals insisted they would be missed.
“I just hope that they’re doing the right thing and giving them a better start. I have no problem with them being here in the first place,” Upper West Side resident Janet Pytlik told WCBS.