Mayor Pledges To Move Homeless From Hell's Kitchen Hotels

HELL'S KITCHEN, NY — The city will "eventually" move homeless people out of the temporary shelters that have been created inside a number of Hell's Kitchen hotels, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday, following weeks of complaints by residents over quality-of-life issues in the neighborhood.

De Blasio did not provide a timeline for when the city would move people out of the so-called "COVID hotels," which were set up in the spring to ease overcrowding in the city's shelter system as the coronavirus spread.

Hell's Kitchen residents have sounded the alarm over the shelters and the people living there, some of whom have allegedly threatened passersby, appeared visibly intoxicated and failed to wear masks or maintain social distancing, NY1 reported. One petition written by Nick Accardi, who owns a number of neighborhood restaurants including Tavola on 9th Avenue, demands that the city remove the "homeless/criminal element" and increase police presence in the area.

In his daily news briefing Monday, de Blasio acknowledged residents' concerns and said he hoped the city's declining numbers of COVID-19 cases meant that homeless people could be moved back into existing shelters.

"As the health situation has continued to improve, we’re going to start the process of figuring out where we can get homeless individuals back into safe shelter facilities and reduce the reliance on hotels," the mayor said.

The Midtown-Hell's Kitchen area has 19 such hotels, according to NY1, more than any other area in the city. Last month, the city moved an unspecified number of men from the Washington Jefferson Hotel on West 51st St., following complaints from nearby residents about drug use and panhandling.

Some of those men were reportedly moved to a hotel on the Upper West Side, where an influx of homeless residents has stoked controversy in that neighborhood.

De Blasio said that city personnel had visited the neighborhood to "monitor the situation," adding that he had directed city agencies including the Department of Health, the Department of Sanitation and the NYPD to address residents' concerns as they came up.

"Anyone who sees a problem should call 311, it will be addressed immediately," he said.

Related coverage:

• Dueling Hotel Homeless Shelter Petitions Divide Upper West Side
• Homeless Complaints Spike After Lucerne Hotel Becomes UWS Shelter