The Lucerne 1 Year Later: Lawmakers Rally for Housing + Homeless Rights

NEW YORK, NY (07/26/2021) (readMedia)-- On Monday, during #JulyHomelessRights Month, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and city and state legislators will gather with activists to observe the one-year anniversary of the Lucerne Hotel becoming a temporary homeless shelter. Together they will lay-out a blueprint for a post-COVID housing plan for homeless New Yorkers, and ask Mayor de Blasio to be part of the solution, rather than stuffing people back into congregate shelters amid the Delta variant surge, with cases up 250% since June 22. The press conference comes on the day the city plans to restart transfers from temporary hotel shelters back to congregate shelters, after a pause won by a Legal Aid lawsuit.

Over the last year, the events surrounding the Lucerne Hotel temporary shelter highlighted the devastating realities of New York City's homelessness crisis. Now, as hotel shelter residents face transfers back to dangerous congregate shelters where people sleep up to 50 to a room and social distancing is impossible, legislators and activists will demand Mayor de Blasio stop the transfers and join them in building real solutions to end homelessness.