Upscale Midtown Hotel To Become Homeless Shelter, City Says

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — A luxe hotel in Midtown Manhattan that charges up to $400 a night will shut down and be converted into the area's first homeless shelter serving adult families, a spokesman for the city Department of Homeless Services confirmed with Patch.

The Chandler Hotel, located on East 31st Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues, will close down at the end of the month and will reopen as a shelter in January of 2018, a DHS spokesman said. The new shelter will accommodate 170 adult families, making it the first traditional homeless shelter within Manhattan's fifth community district.

The shelter will offer "homeless families from Manhattan 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.

Community District 5 — which spans most of central Midtown between 14th Street and Central Park — is currently served by eight DHS facilities. The city currently houses homeless families in six commercial hotel facilities within the district, a practice which has been criticized as costly and insufficient. The Chandler hotel shelter will result in the phasing out of all six facilities, but an exact date as to when those facilities are closed could not be confirmed.

The city will not be purchasing the hotel and nonprofit organization Services for the Underserved will operate the Chandler Hotel shelter, a DHS spokesman said. On-site services for shelter residents will include administration, case management, housing placement assistance, health and wellness services and employment counseling, the spokesman said.

The average cost to taxpayers for a family's stay in the shelter is $150 per night — which covers rent and other services — which is a discount compared to $175 per night for commercial hotels. Cluster sites cost taxpayers about $85 per night but have been criticized for poor conditions and rewarding some of the city's worse landlords.

The new shelter follows 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 Chandler hotel will the the ninth shelter opened since the plan was launched, a DHS spokesman said.

"Working together with neighbors and nonprofit service provider Services for the Underserved, we’re confident that these New Yorkers will be warmly welcomed—and through collaborative support and compassion, we will make this the best experience for these families as they get back on their feet," a DHS spokesman said in a statement.

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