UWS Open Hearts Applauds CM Levin For Threatening Oversight Into DHS Over Lucerne Move

NEW YORK, NY (12/10/2020) (readMedia)-- The UWS Open Hearts Initiative applauds Councilman Stephen Levin, the NYC Council Chair on the Committee on General Welfare, who sent a letter threatening to exercise oversight over the relocation efforts of shelter residents in the Department of Social Services (DSS) system. He also urged the Mayor to stop the relocation of the 190 homeless men temporarily housed at the Lucerne hotel. Yesterday, the Coalition for the Homeless announced that the number of single adults sleeping each night in DHS shelters, including safe havens and stabilization beds, climbed to more than 20,000 as "code blue" conditions set in.

Earlier this week, 22 former senior officials and aides in the de Blasio administration also wrote an open letter to the Mayor urging him to allow the men temporarily housed at the Lucerne hotel to remain there. Last week, a judge granted the men of the Lucerne a stay order until the court can hear their appeal.

Full letter here and below:

Dear Commissioner Banks:

I am writing today to urge you to halt the imminent transfer of the shelter residents from the Lucerne hotel to the Radisson hotel for the duration of the public health emergency related to COVID-19. The Committee on General Welfare, which I chair, expects to exercise our oversight authority over the relocation efforts of shelter residents in the Department of Social Services (DSS) system.

Since the pandemic hit, the City has correctly started using hotels as temporary shelters to safely house those who are currently experiencing homelessness. Hotels like the Lucerne, offer residents a safe environment to socially distance from other residents, unlike traditional congregate shelters. So, it makes zero sense now for the City to be moving the men from the Lucerne hotel to another hotel while over 5,000 New Yorkers remain in traditional congregate shelters.

In the recent court proceeding last month between shelter residents opposing the move and the Department of Homeless Services, the City revealed that it had zero documents showing any kind of internal review process or memo justifying the planned move. The decision was made via Executive Order, and there is no written record as to why one hotel is better than another. This is troubling.

Additionally, at the same proceeding, the City argued it was moving the men due to insufficient space for programming at the Lucerne compared to the Radisson. However, the timing doesn't make sense. The City announced its decision to move the men on September 9th, when the suggested site was the Harmonia family shelter, which did not have the same facilities benefits. Moreover, the Lucerne has the penthouse space available that Project Renewal is currently using for indoor programming.

Residents at the Lucerne are now receiving 6-day-a-week services on-site from Project Renewal's Recovery Center, which provides intakes, occupational therapy, and group meetings. At a standard shelter such services would normally only be available off-site. This is on top of the robust case management, nursing, and wellness programs offered by Project Renewal's nearly 100 on-site staff members, and supplemental programming offered in partnership with local organizations and volunteers, such as walk and talks with faith leaders, resume workshops, and community donation events. Around 50 of the men even have jobs through Goddard Riverside's Green Keepers program. Moving them would jeopardize all the work Project Renewal and the community has done on the Upper West Side to create a robust shelter-community relationship and stability and welcoming for men in DHS's care.

As COVID-19 numbers start to spike, the City has yet to offer a clear rationale for shuffling 200 men from hotel to hotel, aside from the obvious fact that a small segment of the community are demanding he do so. That's not how we make policy in New York City, and certainly not how we treat our most vulnerable. In addition, it is clearly not the time, between the holidays and the increase in COVID rates, to create massive disruption in what is a tenuous and fragile system - both for individual residents and writ large.

The City Council must be allowed to execute its oversight prerogative to fully investigate and account for the Department's decision making process, not only with respect to the Lucerne, but the thousands of other people still living in densely packed congregate shelters who should be prioritized for moves if space is available.

I await your reply.

Sincerely,

Councilmember Stephen Levin

Background:

A NY1/Ipsos poll from October found that sixty-two percent of New Yorkers support housing people currently homeless in their neighborhoods.

In late July, clients of Project Renewal were placed at the Lucene after being transferred from another hotel in Midtown. The hotel placements were part of a de-densification plan that saved lives during COVID, but left some 5,500 New Yorkers behind in congregate shelters.

Soon after the move, Bill de Blasio caved to a group of Upper West Siders who started a racist facebook group and raised $150,000 to hire former Giuliani deputy Randy Mastro to kick Project Renewal shelter residents out of the Lucerne. The eviction was initially announced September 9th, with a plan to displace disabled adult families at Harmonia shelter and transfer Lucerne residents in. After widespread outcry, the mayor announced the Harmonia residents would remain, but Lucerne residents would still be displaced, this time to the Radisson, a former COVID isolation site. The Mayor's decision to move the shelter has emboldened NIMBYs across New York City to privately fundraise ever-growing sums to keep shelters out of their neighborhoods.

Dozens of elected officials and candidates have stood with the men of the Lucerne, including Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, former Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger, Senators Brian Benjamin, Robert Jackson, Jose Serrano, and Brad Hoylman, AMs Linda Rosenthal, Yuh-Line Niou, and Dick Gottfried, every candidate for Manhattan Borough President, CMs Helen Rosenthal, Ben Kallos, Carlina Rivera, Brad Lander, Steve Levin, Keith Powers, and Mark Levine, Comptroller Scott Stringer, Mayoral candidate Maya Wiley, Mayoral candidate Shaun Donovan, Mayoral candidate Dianne Morales, Cynthia Nixon, Zephyr Teachout, and others.