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| Residents of the Harmonia holding signs outside the shelter in Murray Hill, Manhattan today. Photo: STEFAN JEREMIAH |
When I read a story like the one re-posted below about disabled New Yorkers ousted from the Harmonia on East 31st Street in Manhattan, I can't help but wonder why? And How does the Mayor get away with this?
Also, how many of these ejected people are non-white? Don't black/brown lives matter? Where did these people go?
Just askin'.
Betsy Combier
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
Editor, National Public Voice
Editor, NYC Public Voice
Editor, Inside 3020-a Teacher Trials
De Blasio abruptly boots over 100 disabled people from Midtown shelterWith little warning, City Hall moved more than a hundred disabled New Yorkers out of their Midtown shelter to make way for the homeless who were booted by Mayor Bill de Blasio from an Upper West Side hotel.
Frustrated and fearful residents of the Harmonia, a former hotel located on East 31st Street, lined the streets with their belongings Thursday as they awaited their sudden transfer to other shelters in the Big Apple’s sprawling system — with some saying they are being moved to Brooklyn and Queens.
“We’ve been living here for two years. We’ve accumulated so much stuff and they want to just bring one bag. I feel mad,” said Moises Oliveras, 44, who suffers from a host of medical issues and lived at the shelter with his wife, Maria.
“They use us like chess pieces. Moving us around like that.”
The Oliverases only found out Wednesday that they were being moved, just a day after City Hall quietly acknowledged its decision to stop housing the homeless in the Lucerne Hotel.
“We’re human beings, man. And they treated us like garbage,” Oliveras added.
An undated fact sheet posted online reports that more than 170 families call the Harmonia home, though it’s unclear how many lived in the facility as of Thursday. The Post observed dozens of residents standing outside near the facility preparing to move.
“It’s unfair. It’s last notice. Everyone is running around. We were just told this yesterday,” said Lisa Feliciano, 49, a childcare provider who has lived at the shelter for eight months with her daughter.
“My daughter suffers from depression. This isn’t helping. She’s going to college! She’s supposed to take a class at six tonight.”
The clear-out happened despite de Blasio telling reporters three different times during his daily press briefing on Thursday that there was plenty of space in the shelter system to accommodate those who had been living in the Lucerne Hotel on West 79th Street.
“There was a lot more space in our traditional shelters,” Hizzoner said. “We had space available in the places where services are provided, where we expect to be able to do the best to support homeless folks. We never intended to be in hotels on a long-term basis.”
The Department of Homeless Services relocated 10,000 New Yorkers from congregate shelters where social distancing is virtually impossible to hotel rooms as part of an emergency $78 million effort to slow the spread of COVID-19.
That total included the nearly 300 recovering addicts moved to the Lucerne.
Complaints quickly followed as many in the posh neighborhood reported they spotted their new neighbors harassing pedestrians, panhandling, and even relapsing — using drugs, and sometimes overdosing — in public.
One group hired powerhouse attorney Randy Mastro, a former top aide to then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani, to make its case to City Hall.
Crime statistics showed jumps in reported robberies and burglaries in the neighborhood, though violent crime indicators remained flat or declined.
Still, with pressure mounting, de Blasio quietly toured the site and explained his decision to close it down Wednesday as a response to the conditions that he described as “not acceptable”.
City Hall’s about-face earned scorn of its own from Upper West Side politicians and residents, who argued that de Blasio folded and the campaign against the shelter was an affront to the famously liberal neighborhood’s values.
“We are deeply disturbed that the Mayor is caving to political pressure to move homeless New Yorkers out of temporary pandemic shelter at the Lucerne Hotel in a way that will displace 150 adult families living at the Harmonia, none of whom deserve to get caught up in this politicized process,” read the statement cosigned by a slew of prominent Manhattan Democrats, including Borough President Gale Brewer, powerful state Senator Liz Krueger, and longtime Assemblyman Dick Gottfried.
And that’s not the last of the headaches. The Legal Aid Society threatened to sue City Hall on Thursday over the move.
“Mayor Bill de Blasio’s pathetic and shortsighted surrender to Upper West Side NIMBYism has unsurprisingly disrupted the lives of other vulnerable New Yorkers at various shelters around New York City, all in the midst of a public health crisis,” said the group’s top lawyer, Judith Goldiner.
The Department of Homeless Services defended the move in a statement late Thursday.
“We are coordinating closely with our provider partners, who are doing extraordinary work under challenging circumstances,” said spokesman Isaac McGinn. “No one will be turned out into the streets under any circumstance.”
Additional reporting by Craig McCarthy and Julia Marsh
Mayor De Blasio Responds To Criticism About Decision To Move Homeless People Out Of Upper West Side HotelHundreds of homeless people are being moved from an Upper West Side hotel after neighbors in the area complained about an increase in crime and about quality of life issues. Mayor de Blasio is responding to criticism about the decision; CBS2 political reporter Marcia Kramer has the story.
NYC Mayor de Blasio slammed for plan to move homeless out of Upper West Side hotel“The mayor should be ashamed of himself,” NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams thundered at a Wednesday rally outside the W. 79th St. hotel, called the Lucerne.
“On so many levels, you fail. Step up! Be a leader! Stand tall for all New Yorkers!” he yelled, addressing Hizzoner.
The city announced Tuesday that 300 men would be relocated from the Lucerne to shelters on Sept. 20. Homeless people were also set to be transferred out of an unnamed Queens hotel.
In the spring, fear of coronavirus spread prompted the Department of Homeless Services to move about 10,000 homeless people from shelters to hotels. City officials said from the start that the relocations would be temporary.
But the policy prompted a backlash from residents of nabes including the Upper West Side, where two other hotels near the Lucerne have also been housing homeless people. Saying the new neighbors have caused a spike in quality-of-life problems, a group of locals threatened to sue the city.
Now some other Upper West Siders are saying the mayor caved to NIMBY-ism gone wild.
“It is sad that in our neighborhood, a bastion of great privilege and of liberal family values, that the temporary presence of these homeless individuals who were moved here in the midst of a public health crisis of unprecedented proportions divided our community so intensely and caused some to respond with fear and anger,” said local Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, a Democrat.
Joshua Goldfein of the Legal Aid Society threatened to “sue to protect our clients" if the city tries to move homeless people back into “congregate” shelters where people share spaces. A DHS spokesman previously said individuals would be moved from hotels “to alternative non-congregate shelter locations.”
Speaking at a Wednesday press conference, de Blasio rejected accusations he is applying a double standard in favor of well-heeled anti-homeless activists on the Upper West Side.
This gets back to a much more fundamental reality,” he said. “We want to always be focused on what’s healthy and safe for the community and folks that are homeless.” 09, 2020
Earlier this spring, the city moved thousands of people experiencing homelessness from crowded shelters to hotels to protect them from the coronavirus. In some neighborhoods, that created a lot of controversy — especially on the Upper West Side. This week, the mayor decided he would move some men out of the neighborhood. Then the backlash ensued.
City Will Move Men from Upper West Side Hotel to Family Shelter in Manhattan
Earlier this spring, the city moved thousands of people experiencing homelessness from crowded shelters to hotels to protect them from the coronavirus. In some neighborhoods, that created a lot of controversy — especially on the Upper West Side. This week, the mayor decided he would move some men out of the neighborhood. Then the backlash ensued.
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