Homeless New Yorkers living in the Lucerne Hotel will be forced to relocate to a new shelter in downtown Manhattan, the city said on Friday, capping off a weeks-long saga that threatened to displace nearly 900 people across the shelter system.
However, the Department of Homeless Service said that they would not move residents out of the Harmonia Hotel in Midtown and the Flatlands Family Shelter in Brooklyn to make room for the people being kicked out of the Lucerne.
Instead, the nearly 300 homeless men currently residing in the Lucerne on West 79th Street will be moved to a commercial hotel in the Financial District, which will soon be converted to a traditional shelter.
Lucerne residents said they were told Friday that they'd be transferred by the first week of October
“It’s not the moving,” said Shams, who goes by Da Homeless Hero, and declined to give his age or last name for fear of retaliation. “It’s the fact that the mayor has sided with a group of people who just espouse so much racial rhetoric and hatred that I’ve never personally experienced directly until now. The mayor is reflecting their sentiment."
The decision follows an organized pressure campaign from some Upper West Side residents, led by Rudy Giuliani's former deputy mayor Randy Mastro, who threatened to sue the city. In a Facebook group, residents referred to the homeless population as "scum" and discussed using wasp spray against them.
The West Side Community Organization, the group that hired Mastro, did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.
Another group formed to combat the anti-homeless sentiment, Upper West Side Open Hearts, called the city's decision "the pinnacle of cowardliness."
"The Mayor has made a full transformation from so-called progressive Park Slope dad to Upper East Sider, siding with his neighbor Randy Mastro against the most vulnerable people of the city, people he ran claiming to represent," the group said in a statement.
City Councilmember Helen Rosenthal, who represents the Upper West City, added the mayor's decision was "not a homeless policy" but a "reaction to a lawsuit."
Inquiries to the Mayor's Office were not immediately returned.
In a statement, the City's Corporation Counsel, James Johnson, said the adjustment was needed after the “unprecedented circumstances presented by COVID-19."
"These additional changes put us back on track to providing the stability that people need in a way that’s compassionate and equitable for the entire city," he added.
UPDATE: The West Side Community Organization celebrated the news and praised the mayor in a statement. "This is a win-win for all parties and something everyone who truly cares about the homeless should be supporting," Mastro said.
"To his credit, Mayor de Blasio has honored his commitment and kept his word," the statement continued. "And in the process, he has recognized two fundamental truths: SRO hotels are not where we should be housing the homeless. And what has been happening on the Upper West Side as a result of housing so many homeless adults in three SRO hotels in such close proximity is simply 'not acceptable.'"
