City put homeless families in ho-tels

They wanted a warm bed, and instead got hot sheets.

The city warehoused homeless families with children in the same hotels that pimps and prostitutes used to ply their trade — and where illegal drug use and other criminal activity occurred, a stinging new Department of Investigation report revealed Thursday.

The Department of Homeless Services didn’t even consider whether criminal activity was going on at the sleazy hotels where it often placed needy families — a lapse that led to at least one homeless resident being propositioned to work as a hooker, the DOI report said.

A DHS client named “R.L. stated that, on one occasion, an unknown man approached her in the hotel and told her that he knew she was homeless and offered her work as a prostitute to supplement her income,” the report states, noting she also repeatedly saw women in lingerie leading men into rooms at the Bronx Days Inn near Yankee Stadium.

The Jan. 1-Aug. 10, 2017, probe found a total 104 arrests for prostitution-, drug- and assault-related crimes at 34 of the 57 hotels used to house homeless families.

“There is no more important obligation than providing safe shelter to homeless children and families,” said DOI Commissioner Mark Peters. “DOI’s investigation found several safety concerns that require immediate attention.”

Investigators also discovered “suspicious booking patterns” at the Bronx Days Inn and the Bronx Super 8 hotel in Foxhurst.

“In some instances, these individuals paid for their stays all in cash, which is typical of prostitution promoters who use all-cash transactions,” according to the report, which noted that the arrest of a “prostitution promoter who used the hotels for sex trafficking that exploited and abused women and minor girls” confirmed its suspicions.

Homeless Services, a subagency of the Department of Social Services, has agreed to follow Peters’ recommendations that it beef up its approval criteria for commercial hotels and will now — when possible — reserve an entire hotel when it’s used to house families with children.

“We took immediate action, relocating families or occupying locations entirely,” said Department of Social Services Commissioner Steven Banks. “We are working closely with our NYPD management team to evaluate remaining, as well as new, locations.”

One homeless resident staying at the Super 8 with his 29-year-old wife and 9-year-old daughter said the situation there “is better now. There were issues in the past, problems with drugs but things have been more calm.”

Neither hotel responded to a request for comment. Additional reporting by Lorena Mongelli