UWS Open Hearts, Lucerne Residents & All Street Journal Paint MLK Day Street Size Canvas

NEW YORK, NY (01/18/2021) (readMedia)-- On Martin Luther King Day, lucerne residents, members of Upper West Side Open Hearts Initiative and All Street Journal will join together to paint a street sized canvas for Martin Luther King Day that says "Housing Justice is Racial Justice." The founder of All Street Journal, Ciaran Short, authored an op-ed about the racism he encountered growing on the Upper West Side as a Black person.

Homelessness disportionately impacts New Yorkers of color. According to the Coalition for the Homeless, approximately 58 percent of New York City homeless shelter residents are African-American, 31 percent are Latino, 7 percent are white, less than 1 percent are Asian-American, and 3 percent are of unknown race/ethnicity.

In early January, five-judge panel of the Appellate Court of New York unanimously granted a stay on behalf of three homeless residents at the Lucerne hotel blocking the forced relocation of Lucerne to the Radisson for the length of the appeal, which could take six months or longer. Mayor de Blasio still has the power to drop the City's lawsuit entirely, call off the move, and instead commit to using the Radisson to temporarily house people currently experiencing street homelessness in freezing temperatures.UWS Open Hearts Initiative