News from
Ahead of Upper West
Side shelter move,
homeless allies
downtown pull from
‘Open Hearts’ playbook
BY RACHEL HOLLIDAY
SMITH
THE CITY
The first time Shams
DaBaron realized not everyone
on the Upper West
Side wanted the homeless shelter
where he was staying gone, it was
in a message written in chalk under
his feet.
Lucerne Hotel resident Shams DaBaron and advocate Corinne
Low talk about organizing, Oct. 12, 2020.
DaBaron, a writer and advocate
who goes by the name Da
Homeless Hero, walked out of
the Lucerne Hotel on West 79th
Street, where he and more than
200 homeless men have been living
during the COVID-19 crisis.
On the sidewalk outside, locals
had scrawled messages. At fi rst,
DaBaron assumed it was the
usual “derogatory stuff,” he told
THE CITY, like comments he’d
seen in some media coverage, on
social media and in the backlash
to the men living there.
But then a security guard told
him to take a closer look.
“I’m seeing, ‘We love you.’
‘Welcome to the neighborhood.’
‘Everyone deserves a home,’”
DaBaron said. “And I’m like,
‘What happened? What did I
miss?’”
The messages had been written
on Aug. 9 by neighbors who
were just starting to organize as
the UWS Open Hearts Initiative.
The group formed in opposition
to the barrage of negative
attention the Lucerne got from
less welcoming Upper West Siders,
PHOTO BY BEN FRACTENBERG/THE CITY
who eventually threatened a
lawsuit against the city. Shortly
afterward, Mayor Bill de Blasio
ordered the Lucerne residents to
be moved.
Next Stop:
Lower Manhattan
Since the summer, Open
Hearts — led primarily by West
Side moms who volunteer on top
of full-time jobs — has organized
events and political actions on
behalf of the men, from charity
drives to a march to Gracie Mansion.
The group has a volunteer
list of roughly 100 people, of
which a half-dozen members do
the core organizing, according to
co-founder Corinne Low.
A Radisson Hotel near Wall Street is being used as a homeless shelter during
the coronavirus outbreak, Oct. 12, 2020.
Now, because of the mayor’s
order, they’re taking their expertise
on the road to help others
in the fi ght to be neighborly to
shelters.
The next stop is in Lower
Manhattan, where shelter provider
Project Renewal and the city
Department of Homeless Services
are readying the Radisson Hotel
on William Street to host men
from the Lucerne.
They are slated to move there
by the week of Oct. 19, according
to a DHS offi cial who spoke to
Manhattan’s Community Board
1 about the plans last week.
The Radisson is one of three
commercial hotels in Manhattan’s
Community District 1 being used
as temporary housing during the
COVID-19 crisis, DHS said. In
the long term, the agency has said
it plans to convert the Radisson
to a permanent shelter for adult
PHOTO BY HIRAM ALEJANDRO DURÁN/THE CITY
The city was using the Upper West Side’s Lucerne Hotel to
house the homeless, Sept. 11, 2020.
families — meaning couples or a
parent with an adult child.
As those plans move forward,
a well-funded legal battle is
brewing, mirroring the West
Side fi ght.
The newly formed group
Downtown New Yorkers for
Safe Streets is looking to raise $1
million to fund a lawsuit and has
hired veteran attorney Kenneth
Fisher, a former City Council
member known as “the fi xer” in
contentious cases. Neither Fisher
nor his client returned requests
for comment.
Neighborhoods Talk
At the same time, those who
want to publicly support the
residents of the Lucerne are
getting organized, too, informed
and inspired by the Open Hearts
playbook.
Calling themselves Friends of
FiDi, the fl edgling group had its
fi rst Zoom meeting this week,
explaining their mission and hearing
from DaBaron, who logged on
from his room at the Lucerne.
Karin Elgai, a stylist and downtown
mom, was one of about
about 25 people on that call. She
had contacted the Friends group
soon after hearing about the shelter’s
move to the Radisson.
Earlier this month, she, her
husband and their 1-year-old
son visited the Lucerne, getting
PHOTOS BY BEN FRACTENBERG/THE CITY
to know the residents, including
DaBaron, at a “free store” itemdonation
event hosted by Open
Hearts.
“It’s important to understand
that we’re way closer to this
situation than we think,” Elgai
told THE CITY, referring to
homelessness.
She knows something of what
the men are going through, having
struggled with addiction and now
nearly seven years of recovery,
she said. For a time, Elgai lived
in a storage unit in Bensonhurst,
Brooklyn, and showered at a gym.
The experience — which she
stressed was not comparable to
the challenges faced by the men
at the Lucerne — taught her
that anyone is “one day away
from having our life completely
change,” no matter how much
privilege they start with.
Ideally, she would prefer the
men stay where they are to avoid
“the entire trauma, the hostility
and negativity again.” But if they
have to move, she is ready to help
them however she can.
Cait Dooley, a co-founder
of Friends of FiDi, echoed the
sentiment.
“We don’t agree with the
mayor’s move of the Lucerne
residents,” she said. “However,
if that move is taking place, we
think it is incumbent upon us
… to make sure that these men
receive a compassionate welcome
to the neighborhood.”
This story was fi rst published
on Oct. 13, 2020 by THE CITY,
an independent, nonprofi t news
outlet dedicated to hard-hitting
reporting that serves the people
of New York. Read more at thecity.
nyc.
6 Oct. 15, 2020 Schneps Media