Sunset Park locals bemoan hotel-shelter cluster
BY JESSICA PARKS
Members of Sunset Park’s
Community Board 7 are blasting
elected offi cials for grouping
many of the city’s homeless
population at several
hotels within a small stretch
of the neighborhood.
“There are now seven hotel
shelters along a one-mile
strip of Fourth Avenue,” said
Karen Rolnick.
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration
transferred thousands
of shelter residents into
hotels as the pandemic began
washing over New York — citing
fears among those experiencing
homelessness that shelters
were overcrowded and ripe
for COVID-19 outbreaks, similar
to the state’s nursing homes.
Shortly after the beginning
of the program nearly 20 percent
of the city’s hotels were
occupied by members of the
unhoused population.
While the effort was lauded
by advocates for the city’s
homeless, the idea also sparked
controversy from across the
city, most prominently in the
ritzy Upper West Side when
the Lucerne Hotel opened its
doors to the city’s homeless
population, sparking a vicious
38 COURIER LIFE, MAY 7-13, 2021
cycle of detractors looking to
eject their new neighbors.
In Sunset Park, locals bemoaned
the clustering of
homeless residents at seven
hotels within a single-mile
stretch of each other between
20th and 40th streets.
Like is often the case when
the previously unhoused arrive
in a community, many civic
panel members complained at
an April 21 general meeting
of a sharp uptick in crime, including
threatening behavior,
public drinking and urination,
panhandling, littering, drug
paraphernalia and petty theft.
“This behavior increased
dramatically at the start of the
pandemic when several hotels
in the area were repurposed
as homeless shelters,” said
Rolnick.
One community board member
claimed he has allegedly
seen pedestrians being grabbed
by hotel residents regularly.
In response to their complaints,
board members voted
29-to-6 in favor of sending a series
of letters to city agencies
and elected offi cials asking for
on-site services for the hotel
inhabitants and community
outreach from the hotel’s managers
— which are requirements
of many of the city’s
permanent homeless shelters
— among other actions.
One letter, addressed to the
local NYPD 72nd Precinct, recommends
issuing summonses
for the enforceable quality-oflife
issues, which sparked a
back-and-forth among those
looking for more police enforcement,
and those worried about
over-policing in the area.
“I understand some of the
challenges that these homeless
shelters are creating,”
said Justin Collins. “But I
am more than a little bit concerned
about calls for increased
police enforcement,
considering instances of police
over-enforcement of a lot
of things in recent memory.”
The head of the ad-hoc committee
countered Collins’ demur,
claiming that she fl oated
the idea of using social workers
instead of police for lowlevel
offenses, but community
board members rebuffed that
idea at previous meetings.
Meanwhile, the mayor announced
in early April his administration
is working to move
hotel residents to homeless shelters
but has not provided an exact
timeline as of yet.
“We do feel a sense of urgency,
but it has to be done
safely,” de Blasio said at an
April 6 press conference.
A DHS spokesperson defended
the use of “emergency
relocation hotels” as one that
has proven to be effective to
prevent the spread of coronavirus
among the city’s homeless
population, as well as seniors
and single people.
“As our whole City continues
to navigate this situation
together, we are proud that
our strategies have ensured
that New Yorkers experiencing
homelessness receive the
same protections from the
pandemic as New Yorkers fortunate
enough to social distance
at home,” the spokesperson
said. “At this time, the
majority of cases we have experienced
over the past yearplus
have now resolved/recovered,
our case rates remain
low, our proactive COVID testing
continues, and vaccination
is underway.”
For more, including the letters
from the community board,
visit BrooklynPaper.com.
Brooklyn Way Hotel on Fourth Avenue between 25th and 26th streets is
one of the hotels repurposed to a homeless shelter amid the pandemic.
Photo by Jessica Parks
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