The Belnord Hotel, located at 207-209 West 87th Street, is one of two sites which recently began operating as an emergency shelter, according to emails (Google Maps).
According to an email from the West Side Community Organization – a “not-for-profit social welfare organization” which launched during the pandemic to oppose the relocation of homeless individuals from overcrowded shelters to commercial hotels – there are now two new emergency shelters operating on the Upper West Side.
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While the email gets quite specific, the Department of Social Services (DSS) has not confirmed any details.
The Belnord Hotel at 207-209 West 87th Street has been “housing both migrant families as well as NYC unsheltered families,” and Riverside Terrace at 350 West 88th Street is housing couples and families with adult children – “both migrant families and local NYC families,” according to the email.
The Belnord was also used during the pandemic – along with the Lucerne and the Belleclaire – to temporarily house homeless shelter residents.
The email also states that half of the units at the Park 79 (117 West 79th Street) will soon be reserved for Department of Homeless Services (DHS) referrals, while the other half will be offered through housing lotteries (like this one) with income restrictions.
When we contacted DSS (which is comprised of various agencies, including DHS) for details and confirmations, the response we received only confirmed the Safe Haven shelter on West 83rd Street (which was also mentioned in the email), in addition to several statements about their overall response to the asylum-seeker crisis – including the fact that “Public hearings are not required for emergency sites.” Some Upper West Siders have expressed frustration over the City’s lack of communication and transparency.
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A further statement provided by a DSS spokesperson reads (in part) as follows:
“…as part of our moral and legal obligation to provide shelter to anyone in need, including thousands of recently-arrived asylum seekers, our teams continue to work around the clock to procure emergency shelter capacity across the city. We need every community to come together to respond to this humanitarian crisis as we continue to use every tool at our disposal to ensure that we are meeting the unprecedented need for shelter services on the ground.”
The West Side Community Organization’s email concluded by stating that “These Four facilities will bring the total number of those experiencing homelessness to nearly 600 people within NINE BLOCKS in a matter of only a few weeks. This is abject failure on the part of the City, our Council-member Gale Brewer, and our Community Board to address the interests of the community they represent.”
“We all know that we have a crisis with homeless people and that they need housing, but every neighborhood has to step up and do its fair share, and the West Side is clearly doing much more than its fair share,” said former senate candidate Maria Danzilo in a statement to the NY Post.
Does this “legal and moral imperative” only exist in the UWS? Get back to us when the UES or Tribeca or other “exclusive” area also has shelters opening.
Would love someone to actually look into how/why this keeps happening in CB7. Hands certainly cannot be clean.
Suppose you and your family were one of these immigrant families/people?
Would your attitude be the same??
Are you doing anything to help or are you just looking after your own selfish interests?
Acknowledge that you are lucky to have a roof over your head and provide a more
humane attitude towards those who don’t. Many of these people lived through horrendous
experiences before asking for asylum!!
Yep, my attitude would still be the same. When I made nothing I lived far far outside the city center and it never occurred to me that I should be entitled to housing within some of the most expensive neighborhoods of Manhattan. Why must these people be sheltered on the UWS? The homeless have no specific ties to the neighborhood – they don’t pay taxes, work at jobs, or own property.
So I am guessing you believe that they should be housed anywhere but near YOU? Or perhaps that they shouldn’t be housed at all? Should they be forced to continue sleeping on the streets? Or maybe even thrown out with the garbage? Do you even realize, or care, how you sound?
I’m homeless and I have no clue what will happen in my case can I get a opportunity to get into one of those hotels or new shelters?
I can not find any information on West Side Community Organization. Is that its real name?
Why put indigent and/or the unemployable as well as criminals and addicts in the midst of hardworking families and business people? Let’s watch assaults and robberies increase even more thanks to clueless “liberal” social management.
For all the complainers, here is where the UWS actually stands with respect to the number of homeless people sheltered in our District (Manhattan 7):
Manhattan 5 (Midtown): 2,525
Manhattan 11 (East Harlem): 2,275
Manhattan 10 (Central Harlem): 1,825
Manhattan 3 (LES/Chinatown): 1,665
Manhattan 4 (Chelsea/Clinton): 1,125
Manhattan 7 (UWS): 1,110
So, of the 12 districts in Manhattan, the UWS ranks 6th in the number of homeless in shelters. And that is JUST Manhattan. There are neighborhoods in other boroughs that have far more than the UWS as well. (And since I am guessing that the complainers are mostly conservatives, instead of complaining about the UWS vis-a-vis the UES, etc., why not get in touch with your fellow conservatives on Staten Island, where they have three districts, but house less than 200 homeless IN TOTAL on the entire island.)
As per the above, you might want to actually DO THE RESEARCH before you make unsupported claims about the number of homeless people being sheltered on the UWS vs. other neighborhoods, even just in Manhattan, much less around the City.
Ian, you are only counting the “true” “shelters”, but not ALL the supportive housing on the UWS. The Fortune Society is putting in supporting housing on West 97th, where there are already 2 shelters, they say they are NOT a shelter. They will be housing formerly incarcerated and homeless individuals but they are not counted as a shelter. Don’t you think 3 supportive housings on one block is enough when they already need special services? There are 2 shelters on W. 95th, 2 shelters on W. 99th, one on 107th, one going in on W 108th, already 2 supportive housing on West 83rd before this new shelter goes in.
Count up all the beds in ‘SUPPORTIVE HOUSING’ and then you’ll have your real number on the UWS. And why would people who need help and need to get back on their feet be able to afford to live in one of the most expensive boroughs? Wouldn’t it make sense that they should be where they can afford where they are living and go to eat and shop in places they can afford?
Get back to us when you count every blocks supportive housing beds and then you’ll have a real number.
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at your response. You clearly don’t even understand the terms you are throwing around.
You ask, “Wouldn’t it make sense that they should be where they can afford where they are living and go to eat and shop in places they can afford?”
Tell me: where in ALL of NYC would THAT be? In what neighborhood in what borough of NYC could low-income people – to say nothing of those near poverty or the homeless – live and eat and shop? Are you even listening to yourself? By your standard, anyone who cannot afford thousands of dollars per month for rent, or millions for an apartment, should simply move to Iowa, or wherever. A city like NYC, in which “affordable” housing is offered to those earning $50,000 to $100,000, does not have any place for anyone except the rich – unless it is provided.
Second, you use the term “supportive housing.” Do you understand that this category includes, among other things, senior assisted living facilities? Would you like to drive the seniors out TOO since many of THEM could never afford to live here without such assistance? Do you want me to include senior assisted living facilities in the number you want me to provide? Or are you just being a combative provocateur?
I don’t think you KNOW what you actually want, except to complain that people YOU don’t think are WORTHY of living in neighborhoods that they could not live in without subsidies and help should simply move out.
I would say “shame on you,” but I’m not sure you have any shame.
What a response. Quit the demonizing. I work 12 hours per day to live in a shoe box size apartment to live in a neighborhood that I want to be in because I AM liberal and want the best for people. I would think while someone is getting the help they need, they would build esteem by being able to partake in life and eat and shop in their neighborhood, making them fill with pride, not feel like they can’t afford even a sandwich.
Beck to the point, count ALL the supportive housing beds and then speak on how much the UWS has versus other districts as they very much count. Don’t avoid the topic that has been brought up. We’re talking the numbers on how much the UWS is already supporting, not if you are right or wrong. When there are 3 “supportive housings”/”shelters” on just one block and it’s becoming block after block after block and they are not “senior assisted living” (nice try) that is too many for any neighborhood district to handle. You are hearing the voices of the neighborhood speak up because we can’t handle more.
Count the real numbers already on the UWS.
I am sorry to hear about your personal struggles (economic etc.), but I fail to see what they have to do with people FAR more needy and struggling than you living in the neighborhood you chose. In fact, most of them have been here much longer than you, for whatever reasons.
“I would think while someone is getting the help they need, they would build esteem by being able to partake in life and eat and shop in their neighborhood, making them fill with pride, not feel like they can’t afford even a sandwich.”
You have clearly never been in true need, and also do not understand the many factors involved in homelessness and poverty. You SAY you care, but your words betray you. If you REALLY cared, you would take the time to understand WHY people are in need, and WHY it is not always (or even usually) possible for them to do as you SAY they should be able to do.
“You are hearing the voices of the neighborhood speak up because we can’t handle more.” No, I am hearing YOUR voice, and the voices of a vocal minority who have NEVER represented the Upper West Side – certainly not in the 55+ years that I have lived here. In fact, “your” voices only showed up in the wake of the Lucerne and Belleclaire situations, so they are literally brand new on the UWS.
The very reason we have as many supportive housing services and shelters as we do on the UWS is BECAUSE we have traditionally been a neighborhood that CARES; that DOES understand “need,” and is willing to make the sacrifices needed in order to help those less fortunate. We are the people “you” dislike (the “bleeding heart” liberals) because we have a completely different mindset – one that is in opposition to your own. “You” (your ilk) talk a good game re compassion, caring, etc., but your hearts are definitely not in it.
How many is “too many?” From my perspective, the very fact that someone asks that question is an indication that they are starting from the wrong place.
Finally, instead of attacking the less fortunate, why not focus “your” energy (meaning those like you who have “risen up” in the wake of the Lucerne etc.) on what I think you would consider the true underlying issue: NYC’s “right to shelter” laws. If you really want to “do something” that will end the problem, THAT is your target – NOT the people who are exercising their rights under those laws, or even the City that keeps opening new shelters BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO CHOICE LEGALLY. I personally have no issue with those laws, but they ARE the reason that you and I are having this discussion at all.
And btw – truth, facts, and observation are not “demonizing.”
Please do not patronize and judge, you have no right to do so. We all have different opinions in this neighborhood and no one should be condemned. More and more voices are speaking up for different points of view and everyone is entitled to their opinions without judgement.
I think you are still confusing “observation” as “judgment” and “demonization.” I am stating facts, as well as observations I make from the words and actions of others, neither of which is “judgment” or “demonization.”
To the degree that some of my comments seem judgmental, I feel justified in doing so based on my knowledge, experience and long history on the Upper West Side, and my decades of community service in many different regards. It is not hyperbole to say that I have heard and seen it all in my 55+ years as an UWSer, which has included 6 years on CB7 (including co-chairing the very first Community Advisory Board way back in 1988), 11 years with the 20th Precinct Council, 7 years with UWS CERT, and, of course, 20+ years ministering to the street homeless of the UWS. So if I seem to “judge,” you have my apology, but you will understand that it comes from LONG experience, and an increasing intolerance for the lack of compassion, even open hatred, that I have heard and seen from all too many UWSers who claim to “care” – as long as the homeless and others are not in THEIR neighborhood.
As for “demonizing,” that would take the form of epithets, ad hominen attacks and the like. For example, if I called you a “selfish, uncaring, right-wing a-hole” – THAT would be “demonizing.” And it would be wrong both specifically (since you are not) and as a general matter. I would point out, however, that an awful lot of people who spoke out against the homeless men at the Lucerne DID demonize them – and worse. And I am hearing similar dog whistles and coded language with regard to the prosed Safe Haven. In this regard, you definitely seem more rational than many others, and I thank you for that, and rescind any “judgmental” language I may have used against you.