'Billionaire's Row' Hotel To Become Homeless Shelter, City Says

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — A hotel an area known as Midtown's "Billionaire's Row" will be converted into a 150-bed homeless shelter for adult men, the city Department of Homeless Services announced this week.

The conversion of the Park Savoy Hotel on West 58th Street into a shelter is part of Mayor Bill de Blasio's "Turning the Tide" plan to tackle homelessness in New York City. The plan proposes building 90 new homeless shelters in various neighborhoods around the city.

The new shelter will offer "150 New Yorkers experiencing homelessness the opportunity to be sheltered in their home borough, closer to their support networks and communities they called home as they get back on their feet," a DHS spokesman said in a statement.

Nonprofit organization Westhab will run the new shelter and offer on-site services such as employment counseling and housing placement assistance, a DHS spokesman said. The nonprofit will also provide around-the-clock security featuring guards posted at shelter entrances and 56 new security cameras in the facility.

Community District 5 — which spans most of central Midtown between 14th Street and Central Park — is currently served by nine DHS facilities. The city currently houses homeless families in seven commercial hotel facilities within the district, a practice which has been criticized as costly and insufficient. The Park Savoy Hotel shelter will result in the phasing out of all seven hotel facilities.

The city claims it notified area officials and the area community board on Jan. 9, ahead of the required 30 days notice for opening a homeless shelter, a DHS spokesman said. The shelter is expected to open in late winter 2018, but an exact date was not provided, the spokesman said.

But local City Councilman Keith Powers told the Daily News claims he didn't hear about the plan until he called DHS.

"We want to be able to share as much information with our community and our constituents about any project happening," Powers told the Daily News. "We don’t want to find out from them and then be chasing the details of the problem afterwards."

"Billionaire's Row" — which often refers to the Midtown blocks directly south of Central Park — is quickly becoming one of the most affluent neighborhoods in New York City due to a boom in high-rise developments.

Several neighborhood residents expressed shock and disbelief to the New York Post when they were told of the city's plan to open a homeless shelter near them.

"The city has a homeless epidemic and there seems to be no solution," area resident Patricia Jenkins told the Post. "I don’t have an answer, but I know I do not want a homeless shelter in my neighborhood."

The city plans to establish a Community Advisory Board for the new homeless shelter and include local elected officials, the community board, and local block and community organizations in future discussions about community concerns regarding the shelter, a DHS spokesman said.

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