UWS Open Hearts, Shelter Residents + Advocates Demand Mayor de Blasio Empty Congregate Shelters

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NEW YORK, NY (11/29/2020) (readMedia)-- As COVID-19 rates spike, Upper West Side Open Hearts Initiative, All Street Journal, and shelter residents will protest Mayor de Blasio's decision to move the men from the Lucerne to another hotel while over 5,500 New Yorkers are crammed in congregate shelters. The groups will draw 5,500 stick figures on the sidewalk to represent the New Yorkers sleeping 15 to a room in congregate shelters every night.

New Yorkers in congregate shelters are more likely to be exposed to COVID-19 because it is extremely hard to socially distance. According to Legal Aid the pandemic mortality rate for single adults in shelters was 80% higher than the city's general population at 409 per 100,000.

On Wednesday, Judge Debra James ruled that the court cannot block the city's plans to move the men of the Lucerne downtown, on the procedural grounds that shelter residents are required to seek legal remedy for transfers only once they have been moved. The mayor can still drop the transfer and allow the men to stay at the Lucerne where they have on site services, jobs through Goddard Riverside, and a wealth of community support.