It was recently determined that the homeless individuals who’ve resided at The Lucerne Hotel since July 27 would have to be relocated by the end of the month. They’ll be moving into the Harmonia shelter on 31st Street, where some of the current residents have already been forced out to make room for them.
JUNE 2021: COURT RULES TO SHUT DOWN LUCERNE HOTEL HOMELESS SHELTER
The Legal Aid Society has stated it’s preparing a lawsuit against NYC for its plan to relocate these Midtown residents, many of whom are disabled, NY Daily News reports.
#BREAKING: We are preparing a lawsuit against the City over its plan to force homeless NYers with disabilities from the Harmonia shelter in Manhattan to other facilities scattered around New York City that lack necessary services to accommodate their needs.https://t.co/Z8ePNla8UI
— The Legal Aid Society (@LegalAidNYC) September 10, 2020
According to the report, residents of the Harmonia, 80% of whom are said to be disabled, began getting kicked out of the building on Thursday, September 10. The Legal Aid Society states that residents were given less than two days notice, and some of them have lived in the Midtown building for years.
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However, it was more recently announced that the city had put a pause on the relocations.
NEWS — @LegalAidNYC tells me the city has paused moving people out of Harmonia as negotiations continue. 17 families have already been moved out
— Courtney Gross (@courtneycgross) September 11, 2020
“This crisis emerged after the City’s knee-jerk decision to uproot men living in safe refuge at the Lucerne Hotel in the Upper West Side to the Harmonia Shelter in Midtown Manhattan, a facility that serves homeless New Yorkers in adult families, 80% of whom are disabled,” The Legal Aid Society tweeted.
Protests outside the Midtown building took place after the news was announced.
What is happening at the #???????? is not who we are as a City, we don’t purposely hurt our most vulnerable.
This should have been handled with compassion.
These are disabled people, being displaced by the City through no fault of their own.
@LegalAidNYC pic.twitter.com/6mmKLGlVKo
— Ben Kallos, NYC Council Member (@BenKallos) September 11, 2020
Council Member Helen Rosenthal, who also spoke at the September 9 protest outside The Lucerne Hotel, was in attendance along with Gale Brewer and other elected officials.
At the Harmonia in Midtown, where shelter residents and electeds including @galeabrewer, @KeithPowersNYC, @HelenRosenthal and others are protesting the abrupt transfer of dozens of homeless families. @LegalAidNYC is threatening a lawsuit. pic.twitter.com/E5Ni9TaoGP
— Nick Garber (@nick_garber) September 11, 2020
Mayor de Blasio stated that Lucerne residents would begin to be relocated on September 20.
Oh Randy? Randy Mastro? How are you feeling now?
You have no power over De Blasio no matter how much your UWS haters pay you.
We won.
What do you mean you won? You still have 2 1/2 locations within a 10 block radius of homeless and criminals released from Rikers Island. How is that winning? This community was never asked about this. It was just shoved down our throats. I’ve lived here for 21 years and I can telll you I’m happy to be leaving with my many, many tax dollars. It warms my heart to see the idiots in this city like you, that continue to vote for idiots like warren Wilhelm, that think this is winning, to foot the bill. This city won’t recover for a long time with what this pandemic has shown corporate America. You don’t need expensive Manhattan real estate for work. With 73% less lease signings this August compared to last year, the death spiral is irreversible. Have fun here with your leftist voting ideas.
Barry:
“What do you mean you won? You still have 2 1/2 locations within a 10 block radius of homeless and criminals released from Rikers Island. How is that winning?”
Excuse me? Where are you getting your information, Fox News? There are no “criminals released from Rikers” at the hotels. Never have been.
“This community was never asked about this. It was just shoved down our throats.”
NO community was ever asked about it, and it was shoved down ALL of our throats. The UWS was not “singled out.”
“I’ve lived here for 21 years and I can tell you I’m happy to be leaving with my many, many tax dollars.”
I have lived on the UWs for 55 years, and if you want to leave, then I say good riddance: based on your comments, I would rather have the homeless here than you.
“It warms my heart to see the idiots in this city like you, that continue to vote for idiots like warren Wilhelm, that think this is winning, to foot the bill. This city won’t recover for a long time with what this pandemic has shown corporate America. You don’t need expensive Manhattan real estate for work. With 73% less lease signings this August compared to last year, the death spiral is irreversible. Have fun here with your leftist voting ideas.”
Not all of us voted for the current group of electeds. I certainly didn’t. This mayor is the worst mayor in my lifetime. And while Ms. Rosenthal has actually done some real good for the community, she did flip=flop a bit on the current situation. I do wonder what you mean by “you didn’t need expensive Manhattan real estate for work.” I also wonder what you mean by “signings.”
Can’t please everyone. ¯\_(?)_/¯
Helen Rosenthal should resign!
What is she doing protesting down in front of the Harmonia downtown? She is a phony and she should resign since she is not interested in supporting or working in the community she was elected to represent. She is just out there pretending like she cares about the homeless now, maybe thinking she has a political future. I sincerely hope not.
Helen Rosenthal has changed her tune so many times on the recent homeless shelters. First she was not honest or transparent about the moves to her constituents. She then claimed she didn’t know and said she would look into it and ask for them to be removed as there were already too many on the UWS. She then changed her tune to present herself as a person who cares about the homeless so she can spin this for her political gain. Helen do us all a favor and PLEASE get out of the way. You are using the tax-payers money for what seems like your personal interest and agenda. You are incompetent and have done nothing for the UWS even before the pandemic. There were and are many homeless people in the neighborhood and small businesses that needed support . The homeless people are not just at the Lucerne or Belleclaire.
Simply put, housing so many homeless people in a 10 block area is a negligent decision on top of an existing big homeless problem in the neighborhood as well as several other shelters. This resulted in a much higher density of people begging, harassment, public urination, defecation, and drug usage. Objecting to this in a community does not make a person racist or heartless or a hater. People are just using racism for everything these days. People who are experiencing these things in the community are not haters, racists, or scums as some of the posters are saying here and elsewhere.
It is ironic that the people who call themselves nice and compassionate are the ones engaged in hateful and at times obscene language resorting to name calling their neighbors or the members of the community. Most of us feel badly for people in a homeless or troubled state and just because we are not all out there protesting or making posters, it does not mean we are heartless.
The homeless and those with mental or drug issues need the right kind of help and support in the right environment. The leaders of this city and the community are going about this the wrong way, making hasty and bad decisions that are politically motivated and thoughtless. It is not clear why the residents of Harmonia are being asked to leave with such a short notice only so the men from Lucerne can move into the shelter. Once again those making these decisions don’t seem to be explaining and communicating why they are doing what they are doing just like they did not communicate or make any sense to move so many homeless people hastily into the 3 shelters on the upper west side in the summer.
So instead of name calling the community members and the neighbors, it is better to focus our attention on those who are our city leaders such DeBlasio, the DHS, and UWS council Helen Rosenthal who seem to be so incompetent to handle this issue as well as so many other things. We need to demand that they do their job well and do it in the interest of their constituents instead of doing things for their own personal or political gain.
Let’s get rid of her!!
Helen Rosenthal is awful!!!!!!
We need a politician without a personal agenda..
We need a representative who is interested in the needs and wants of their constituents..
We need someone to listen to the voters in the community.
Mayor de Blasio also should be called out for his incompetence and how he is going about solving the issues as is the case int he recent handling of the homeless shelters. He is a man who repeatedly calls anyone making an average decent living in NYC wealthy scums that should not be listened to or cared about. Mr. Mayor, this is NYC and making even 125K (before the highest tax in the country) is not enough to cover a cost of an apartment, services and food for a family but yet you do not listen to all citizens of NYC and business people and pretend that you work for the working class while you do nothing for the working class except for your lip service and appointing your wife and friends to positions that are not clear what they are for. You say the city does not work anymore for the business people (that you call wealthy), but the business people also contribute to the economy and employ people. You would rather support a welfare state than a thriving economy that generates income to provide services. You actions appear to be hostile to business people and middle income wage earners.
You are so incompetent that at this time of need for the city to recover, you choose to ignore all quality of life issues. You are a phony and misguided leader as well since you say you care about the working class and poor people but yet you have treated the homeless people in these shelters with very little respect or common sense decisions. The shelter decisions and actions have been a fiasco.
The streets of NYC are full of homeless people, trash, open drug use and all businesses are boarded up, but rather than taking steps to resolve and address these issues, you incite people by saying you do not care for the wealthy like this is a way to defend your lack of strategy and competence to handle basic issues for the city residents. It has become fashionable to call average people in the city who are working hard to have a decent life and have jobs as wealthy (mixing them up with the ultra wealthy) so we can all put them to shame. What a horrible strategy from a leader of a major city in the world. You solution to all these problems is to just wait for aid for city and state or to just let the quality of life go to hell. Your justification, the quality of life does not matter because the wealthy New Yorkers don’t deserve to have a good life. Mr. Mayor, everyone the poor, the business owners, businesses and corporations, and those who have jobs and work hard all deserve a good life.
You are so misguided and you do not deserve to be the mayor of the greatest city in the world, NYC. You have let this city go to hell and you are doing nothing about it. You should be ashamed for lying and wasting city resources by putting people who are in your circle into jobs they know nothing about like your wife. What has she done for the 1.2 billion or so you have given to her for mental health programs? The city is full of homeless people with or without mental issues that need serious help.
The city of NY needs a competent mayor to run things and to sit down and prioritize issues for how to improve the quality of life and business outlook for everyone’s sake.
UWSResident:
While certain things you say about the mayor are true, your post is so full of lies and misinformation that it would take a BOOK to parse them. Suffice to say that you are incorrect about at least 90% of what you wrote.
Ian Alterman, it is easy for you to just say everything is lies and you are not sure even what you are saying most of the time. What are lies here? or 90% not true? You must have failed math or just maybe you think math is lies. Can you write a BOOK? I doubt it. The book will be full of just the words ‘lies’ and repeat itself.
The post I had is not saying anything bad about the people at Lucerne which you seem to only defend. You do not even defend the homeless in the streets and you say that they are the problem instead. The post says we are mishandling the homeless situation in NYC. de Blasio made the decision to move people at Lucerne overnight.
Look at all the homeless in the city. And putting so many homeless into hotels in such a small area where there are already a number of shelters etc. is not a great strategy which is why the residents complained and also there was a lot of misinformation. This was mishandled by those involved. And now they are moving them to the Harmonia to displace people in Harmonia. The mayor seems to mishandle so many things in NYC. And do you support his wife in office who has been given more than a billion for programs such as ThriveNYC that no-one can account for. So please stop attacking everyone’s input and fill these pages with your posts that are very boring. You have helped the people at Lucerne and if so, we thank you. de Blasio is one of the worst mayors NYC ever had. We need to move NYC forward to rise after the pandemic and this man is not up to the job and has never been. The only thing he ever did was the universal pre-k and that is it.
Before you respond, think about how boring your post will be if you just say everything is lies. You might want to be credible for a change to throw us for a loop. After all you support the homeless people ‘only’ at Lucerne I guess.
UWS Resident:
“It is easy for you to just say everything is lies and you are not sure even what you are saying most of the time.”
Actually, I know EXACTLY what I am saying, because I actually spend the time to get the FACTS. You might want to go to Next Door and read my four posts called “UWS Situation,” which provide EXTENSIVE FACTS about all of these things. It is what I do. It has been my raison d’etre for initially involving myself in the issue; because I was sick and tired of seeing and hearing inaccurate information and even lies about what has happened and why, and what the truth of things really is.
“You must have failed math or just maybe you think math is lies.”
I was an honor student in math.
“Can you write a BOOK? I doubt it. The book will be full of just the words ‘lies’ and repeat itself.”
That is a silly ad hominem comment.
“The post I had is not saying anything bad about the people at Lucerne which you seem to only defend. You do not even defend the homeless in the streets and you say that they are the problem instead.”
I am defending, and will continue to defend, the men at the Lucerne because they are being unfairly scapegoated. Yes, there are some bad apples and some small part of the “conditions” people talk about can be traced to them. But the way the NIMBYs would have it, EVERYTHING BAD that is happening is the fault of those at the hotels. I DARE you to read through the comment threads on this ezine, Gothamist, West Side Rag and others and tell me that is not the case. When people are so viscously and consistently wrongly attacked, then an equally strong and consistent defense is required. I provide that defense because it is needed. As for the street homeless, I have worked with them for over 12 years, day in and say out, and I would defend them equally vehemently if THEY were the ones being attacked unfairly. But I also know, BECAUSE I work with them, that they are far more culpable in creating the conditions that are being blamed on the hotel homeless. Yet they, too, are human beings, and I treat all of them with the same dignity and compassions that I have for the hotel homeless.
“de Blasio made the decision to move people at Lucerne overnight.”
Almost correct. The mayor and the DGHS developed the plan back in Feb/Mar, but did not tell anyone – including the elected official (despite the disinformation of the NIMBYs) – about it until ~1 week before it happened. So the DECISION was made MONTHS in advance, but not shared until a week or two prior.
“Look at all the homeless in the city. And putting so many homeless into hotels in such a small area where there are already a number of shelters etc. is not a great strategy which is why the residents complained and also there was a lot of misinformation.”
I mostly agree with this, and am happy to see someone recognize that there WAS (and is) a lot of misinformation out there. And too many people are regurgitating it without taking a single f—ing moment to find out what is actually true. THAT is what I did and do; I took and take the time to find out, which is why I can come off as “all-knowing” or “self-righteous.”
“This was mishandled by those involved.”
100% Agree.
“And now they are moving them to the Harmonia to displace people in Harmonia.”
Actually, a lawsuit was filed by the Coalition for the Homeless that has put ALL further movement of hotel homeless on hold. That could last only a few days, or a few weeks, or permanently.
“The mayor seems to mishandle so many things in NYC.”
He is by far the worst mayor in my lifetime. I would prefer having Dinkins back.
” And do you support his wife in office who has been given more than a billion for programs such as ThriveNYC that no-one can account for.”
Why would you even bring that up. What relevance is there?
“So please stop attacking everyone’s input and fill these pages with your posts that are very boring.”
I am sorry you find FACTS and accurate information “boring.”
“Before you respond, think about how boring your post will be if you just say everything is lies. You might want to be credible for a change to throw us for a loop. After all you support the homeless people ‘only’ at Lucerne I guess.”
I have been “credible” the entire time. As I have now said ad nauseam, I have been providing nothing BUT facts, and credible information, but people reject it because they don’t WANT to know the truth. They NEED their scapegoat to justify their lack of compassion (despite the lip service they give it) and often blatantly despicable comment.
I will not stop providing accurate information, and responding to inaccurate information, even if people continue to ignore it. That is THEIR problem, not mine.
So you agree with everything that I said except for the failing math comment. But you said you disagreed with 90% of what was said as they are lies, but agree that de Blasio is the worst mayor and that the info was withheld from the community about the Lucerne and was mishandled and you also agree with the homeless problem in the neighborhood and having a high density of homelessness in a 10 block neighborhood is not a great decision and exasperated the community stress. The 90% is still not adding up here. This is why it seems that you pick on any post that you ‘think’ is not in support of the Lucerne and call them as lies or as in your mind the UWS people who don’t deserve respect because they are concerned about the quality of life on the UWS. Nothing wrong with you providing additional supporting information on what is gong on there. We appreciate the clarification.
Ian, we applaud you for working with the homeless for so many years. Most of us are not saying we hate homeless people, we are saying that they need help like those in the city who are doing what they are doing, shouting and looking really not of a sound mind or good hygiene. They need help and being on the streets of the city in such high numbers is a problem and we hope that we as a community and city can do something to help the situation. Walking the streets during the day, you see a higher number of people in that 10 block where they have been moved to doing the things like begging and other stuff that have been mentioned before. These are not lies, these are things that the community is experiencing. If the men do not have a place to go to the bathroom, then we need to fix it as it is happening. I don’t think most of us fault the homeless for that, we fault the system. Please do not attack the UWS residents and name call them. Most of people who live in the community cannot per se identify who is homeless that is a street homeless, versus Lucerne, versus whatever. We see a deteriorating area with many issues that the city leaders are failing or not caring to address and they use the pandemic as an excuse. Hence the de Blasio post about what an awful mayor he is.
UWS Resident:
“Most of people who live in the community cannot per se identify who is homeless that is a street homeless, versus Lucerne, versus whatever.”
It took all this time for someone to admit that. THAT is why I keep posting. And while YOU have admitted that, many others have not, so i will keep providing accurate information, and trying to get people to admit what you just admitted.
As for “lies,” I rarely use that word. I use “inaccurate,” “wrong,” etc. But some people ARE trafficking in lies, and I will call them out whenever I see them.
Still, thank you for your comment here. And for Pete’s sake, stop obsessing about “math.” This issue is not about “math.” It is about saving people’s lives, and the fact that too many people think their property values are more important than human life, and the fact that people continue to spread misinformation and, yes, lies.
Ian, I stated here, and the residents of UWS have stated that they have experienced a higher number of issues and disturbances in the 10 block area where the 3 hotels are located and homeless people have moved in. the word “higher” means more (>). There we go with math again :). So moving so many homeless people in the area at once, where there were already many homeless and shelters was a wrong decision, exasperated the situation, and therefore it should be undone. There is no need to call such people liars or heartless.
UWS Resident:
“Ian, I stated here, and the residents of UWS have stated that they have experienced a higher number of issues and disturbances in the 10 block area where the 3 hotels are located and homeless people have moved in.”
And once again, I will remind you that the moving in of the homeless to the hotels happened simultaneously with the closing of the subways, which sent all of the homeless down there to the surface, thus DOUBLING the number of street homeless. In this regard, I also repeat yet again that it is impossible to determine how much of the downturn in “conditions” is due to the moving in of the hotel homeless and how much is due to the increase in street homelessness.
However, having lived here for 55 years, been involved in the homeless issue for 25 of those, and having worked directly with the street homeless on a day to day basis for some dozen or more years, I am inclined, based on my knowledge and experiences, to put far more of the “blame” on the street homeless. That you and others choose to do the latter is certainly your prerogative. But I don’t think it is based in fact.
Why can’t the families and disabled homeless at the Harmonia be transferred to the Lucerne? The issue with current occupants is that drug addicts, sex offenders and mentally unstable men have not acted as good neighbors. No one on the UWS has issue with embracing homeless families and disabled people.
Debra! There are NO SEX OFFENDERS staying at the Lucerne Hotel. Get your facts straight and stop spreading lies. Many of the men at the Lucerne are disabled. Take the time to visit and see who these men are before you make false claims. Many of these men work and have jobs.
First of all, “Robert,” stop shouting at me. I didn’t specifically say there were sex offenders at the Lucerne–I was speaking of the homeless population in general and the issues that prompted the resistance on the UWS. There were 14 sex offenders housed at the Bellclaire and at least some have been moved if not all. I am aware that many of the men work and are trying to get their lives in order but there are also many who are drug dependent or mentally impaired to the point of being a public nuisance. I am not a liar and you are a bore so, bugger off. You sound like Ian.
I’m not sure if this counts as a sex offense, but I have seen men jerking off in the street in broad daylight and a guy getting a BJ with his pants down around his ankles and the woman in her underwear. I have pictures, but I’ll spare you. I don’t know if he has a job, but his getting a blow job if that counts. So if we’re upset, don’t scream at us!
I’m repeating myself, but why not? The problem with The Lucerne placements is one of density. Studies show that no more than 70 troubled people can be effectively housed in a single setting. The Lucerne has more than four times that. The mix of active drug users, severely mentally ill people and men actively in recovery was a foreseeable tragedy, except for the drug dealers who came to meet demand. The failures rest neither with the homeless nor UWS residents. The failures lie within the City’s ineffective, but lucrative, $3billion+ a year homelessness industry.
Guess many politicians want to come off as good progressives to the left like AOC . Need to change their feathers in this political climate and scapegoat others.
What is our public advocate Jumaane Williams up to anyway? He lives in a gated community in Brooklyn; is on the city’s worst landlords list and owes a huge amount of back taxes which this city is in dire need of.
It’s really unfortunate that the quality of life has deteriorated so badly on the UWS.
The streets are dirty and loaded with homeless. These people live, sleep, eat, defecate and urinate there. The streets smell and their outcry’s and shouting is frightening to our senior community and our kids. The outflow of
residents from our community is shocking!!
What happed to “QUALITY OF LIFE”?
You cannot walk a block or sometimes just feet, without being stopped by a panhandler or beggars.
Please .. please will all the residents who think the the Lucerne Hotel Should be allowed to house these sick people in a residential Community help out the city.
Ask the Mayors office to allow each one you to house a homeless person in home.
You would be helping NY financially ..
We would not need the hotels and you would have something to do so you don’t waste time protesting and suing the city!!
Ageeed!!!! What do you say Ian?
Lisa:
You well know by now by reading me here that I do not agree with very much that UWS Sam says because s/he is still spewing inaccurate information, despite being given accurate information. S/he utterly rejects FACTS in favor of misinformation and feeling. It is near impossible to get through to someone like that. So, no, I do not agree with him/her, and posted my response to his/her post below yours.
The quality of life is horrible on the UWS since the 4 hotels were filled with homeless. Please smell the coffee . The UWS was a safe , family neighborhood before. So Rosenthal and Deblasio are both wrecking our home . Thereis a better places for the homeless rather then a hotel room and a flat screen TV . There are better places for the homeless to help them not squeesed into a neighborhood .Don’t defund the police defund Rosenthal and Deblasio . Thank goodness they will both be on the unemployment line soon . They are useless
UWS Sam:
“Please .. please will all the residents who think the the Lucerne Hotel Should be allowed to house these sick people in a residential Community help out the city.”
The problem, as you freely, if accidentally admit, is NOT wit the hotel homeless, but with the street homeless. Start by addressing the actual problem, and not the one you WABNT to be true. Residents of the hotels don’t need to “live, sleep, eat, defecate and urinate” on the streets: they have private rooms (though a few are doubled up) where they live and sleep, they are provided three meals a day, as well as food provided by those of us who actually care about them, and they have bathrooms within a block of where they hang out, so the don’t NEED to urinate or defecate in the street. However, the STREET homeless DO all of those things: live, eat, and sleep” on the street, as well as urinating and defecating because all of the bathrooms they used to be able to use – libraries, book stores, public bathroom, Starbuck – are closed right now, so they have nowhere to go.
Please get your facts straight before scapegoating a group of people who have little or NOTHING to do with the complaints you have.
Why don’t some of these protesters put their money where their misguided opinions are and offer to tak a couple of needy people into their homes??
Harriet:
“Why don’t some of these protesters put their money where their misguided opinions are and offer to tak a couple of needy people into their homes??”
I have to LOL this, because you are talking to the wrong side, IF you are talking about the protesters who are in favor of allowing the homeless to stay. It is the NIMBYs with the misguided opinions, and it is THEY who raised over $100,000 to pay Randy Mastro to sue the City to remove the homeless. And it is THEIR $100,000 that could have been used in SUPPORT of the homeless, to do many things, including assisting them with finding housing. WE have not raised a single dime, so WE don’t have money. What we DO have is compassion, and we are channeling that compassion into ACTION: providing food and supplies to the homeless, setting up a free resume writing workshop, and providing ongoing moral support and solidarity through local events. We have now provided a “welcome home” box to every resident who has found permanent housing (10 from the Lucerne alone), including household supplies, food and other items.
What, exactly,. is the “other side” DOING to help them? The answer, of course, is NOTHING, despite their lip service about “compassion.”
Yeah
You r right!!
The homeless in the streets have multiplied 4 fold over night … BY ACCIDENT!!
Yeah…right???
Please wake up and smell the coffee..
It’s already too late!!
The progressive led by Rosenthal have made sure this neighborhood will never be the same!!
That is a good reason to have them shit and piss in the streets.
This does not include the increased use of and sale of drugs in the street by the homeless.
Do u have an explanation and excuse for that as well??
Some of these homeless need to be relocated to a facility for the mentally insane. They should focus on those who are causing all the trouble. It is very unfortunate that everyone has to pay the price for those few bad apples. How many of them are actually bad anyway?
SERVY:
“Some of these homeless need to be relocated to a facility for the mentally insane. They should focus on those who are causing all the trouble. It is very unfortunate that everyone has to pay the price for those few bad apples. How many of them are actually bad anyway?”
Actually, no one in any of the hotels is anywhere near “insane.” Mental illness exists on a spectrum, and none of the hotel residents would qualify as anywhere near that high on the spectrum. Those who ARE mentally ill have more minor such illnesses, and would not even be permitted to be a hotel resident if they were not ultimately capable of independent living. The whole point of what Project Renewal does is to find permanent housing for its residents. They have already moved 10 people into permanent housing in just the two months they have been there.
The number of bad apples is small, and when they are found, they are removed. There have been several arrest of the hotel homeless (though none for crimes against people; only for crimes against property), and all of them have been either incarcerated (as they wait for trial) or removed from the shelter. Of ~280 men at the Lucerne, perhaps 15 have been removed either for actual crimes, or for violating either internal or external policies. So the “bad apples” ARE being winnowed out, though some that remain may still have substance abuse and mental illness issues – which are being worked on by their case wormers, medical staff, psychiatric staff, and off-site treatment facilities.
UWS Sam:
“You r right!! The homeless in the streets have multiplied 4 fold over night … BY ACCIDENT!! Yeah…right???”
Not by accident, It occurred when the MTA shut down the subway and all the homeless who lived down there were forced to the surface. This doubled the number of street homeless almost overnight. And it happened, coincidentally, at the same time that the hotel homeless were being moved in. So you and others have been conflating the two things, but scapegoating the hotel homeless because they are an easier target.
“Please wake up and smell the coffee..”
I like mine with three sugars and a little bit of half and half. Thanks.
“It’s already too late!! The progressive led by Rosenthal have made sure this neighborhood will never be the same!!”
You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but the overwhelming majority of UWSers do not agree with you. Besides, she is term-limited, so she will not be running again anyway.
UWSSam:
“That is a good reason to have them shit and piss in the streets. This does not include the increased use of and sale of drugs in the street by the homeless. Do u have an explanation and excuse for that as well?”
Not an excuse, but once again you are conflating the street homeless and the hotel homeless. The hotel homeless have no need to shit and piss in the street, because they have perfectly good bathrooms within a block of where they may be hanging out. But the street homeless DO have cause, since all of the bathrooms they used to rely on – libraries, bookstores, Starbucks, etc. – are closed to them right now. So THEY are the ones engaging in that, NOT the hotel homeless.
As for use and sale of drugs, yet again, how on God’s earth can you be so certain that those are hotel homeless and not street homeless, unless you have a book of photographs of the hotel homeless that you carry around to match faces to? The question, of course, is rhetorical: you CAN’T. Yet you continue to blame the hotel homeless regardless, because you WANT and NEED a scapegoat.
Rent the families a apartment
get families out of the hotels and put the single people to work.
Considerations. There’s only nominal supportive housing dedicated to the mentally impaired homeless. Those with schizophrenia and drug addiction are mixed in with down-on-their-luck men. It is well-known that housing more than 70 similarly troubled people an any single setting is ineffective. The Lucerne houses four times that! Those actually receiving treatment typically have to travel hours to receive it. Those on drugs attracted dealers. The problems we face — ones that threaten the mental and physical health of many, including children and the elderly — are the result of government incompetence and slapdash decision making. For the $3billion+ a year the City spends on homelessness, we have good reason to expect MUCH better results!
Fiorella:
There’s only nominal supportive housing dedicated to the mentally impaired homeless. Those with schizophrenia and drug addiction are mixed in with down-on-their-luck men. It is well-known that housing more than 70 similarly troubled people an any single setting is ineffective.”
Thank you for the first part. But please provide sourcing for your claim about “70 similarly troubled people.”
Those actually receiving treatment typically have to travel hours to receive it.”
True in some cases, but not across the board.
Those on drugs attracted dealers. The problems we face — ones that threaten the mental and physical health of many, including children and the elderly — are the result of government incompetence and slapdash decision making.”
Please explain how “the problems” “threaten the mental and physical health” of ANYONE.
“For the $3billion+ a year the City spends on homelessness, we have good reason to expect MUCH better results!”
Same as it ever was. And has been under all mayors, Democrat and Republican. That is because no one has ever looked at the issue holistically, and spent the money wisely. Affordable housing is the key, and I don’t mean “affordable housing” as that phrase is commonly used; it is a misnomer. I mean truly affordable housing for people on subsistence income or in poverty.
But even where I disagree with you, I thank you for your reasoned and intelligent approach. It is a breath of fresh air on these boards.