New York Post: Lucerne Hotel homeless win court order barring their move downtown for now
By Nolan Hicks, Sam Raskin, Julia Marsh and Priscilla DeGregory
October 19, 2020
Hall’s embattled plan to move hundreds of homeless New Yorkers from a controversial Upper West Side hotel to the Financial District remained in limbo Monday after shelter residents won an emergency court ruling that temporarily blocks their relocation downtown.
The initial victory came just hours after three hard-luck New Yorkers staying at the shelter operating inside of the Lucerne Hotel intervened in a lawsuit already filed by residents who live near the Wall Street lodging, a former Radisson Hotel on Williams Street.
Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Debra James granted the temporary injunction sought by the men after two hours of argument that were closed to the public, writing the move could not happen without an additional hearing as it would “materially affect and compromise their rights.”
“I am thrilled by the Court’s decision today. This will give the men living at the Lucerne Shelter Hotel a voice in the process,” said attorney Michael Hiller, who represented the three men. “It also proves that, in the eyes of the law, it doesn’t make a difference who you know, or how much money you have; everyone is equal.”
It was the latest development in the high-powered Upper West Side brawl that’s turned into an ever-deepening bog for Mayor Bill de Blasio, who initially ordered the Department of Homeless Services to close its operation at the Lucerne in September after neighborhood outcry.
Opponents of the shelter hired attorney Randy Mastro — who was a top aide to former Mayor Rudy Giuliani — to make their case to City Hall that the decision to move nearly 300 residents to 79th Street and Amsterdam Avenue was harming the quality of life in the neighborhood.
However, other Upper West Siders, including veterans of de Blasio’s administration, organized counter-protests and argued that complaints about increases in crime, panhandling and drug usage — many of the residents are recovering addicts — were exaggerated.
But de Blasio’s administration struck a deal with Mastro to move the men, only to see the relocation plan quickly tied up in controversy and in court.
Legal Aid threatened to sue over the administration’s initial plan to move the Lucerne residents to the midtown Harmonia shelter, relocating the 100 families who live there — many of whom suffer from disabilities — to other facilities scattered across the city.
Officials then proposed moving the Lucerne’s residents downtown and converting the former Radisson into a permanent shelter, triggering a lawsuit from local residents to block the move — and the intervening court papers from the three homeless men, all of which led to Monday’s restraining order.
“We are evaluating our legal options and will continue to pursue the move to the new location that is closer to medical care and has more space for on-site services as we implement temporary relocations that protect homeless New Yorkers from COVID-19,” said Bill Neidhardt, de Blasio’s top spokesman.
City Hall initially opposed efforts for a mass evacuation of shelters when the coronavirus pandemic broke out in the spring.
But under pressure from the City Council and facing a COVID-19 outbreak, city officials launched a campaign to move homeless New Yorkers into hotel rooms from the barracks-style congregate shelters they typically call home where social distancing was nearly impossible.
Officials contracted with the Hotel Association of New York City to find space in more than five dozen hotels scattered across the city for roughly 10,000 New Yorkers. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is expected to eventually pick up 75 percent of the $299 million price tag.
But neighborhoods have increasingly pushed back against the emergency hotel shelter program as city and state officials have battled back the COVID-19 outbreak, which left more than 23,000 New Yorkers dead.
Hell’s Kitchen residents joined the list of posh Manhattan precincts challenging the hotel program on Monday, arguing that officials have placed too many homeless New Yorkers there while failing to provide essential support and services.
“We are a welcoming district, we are a welcoming neighborhood, but the way this has been managed has created a major, major public safety all around our neighborhood,” said Joe Restuccia, a member of the newly-minted Hell’s Kitchen Neighborhood Coalition. “We’re not a community that says no; we are a community that says fix it.”
Also reported on New York Daily News, Gothamist, CBS 2 NY,