Legal Org Calls UWS Residents 'Racist' In Handling Of Shelters

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — The Legal Aid Society will take legal action if Mayor Bill de Blasio succumbs to local pressure to move homeless shelter residents from hotel rooms across the city back to congregate housing before it is safe, the group said Thursday.

The influential legal nonprofit called out just one neighborhood as the source of the pressure — the Upper West Side.

"The Legal Aid Society today warned Mayor Bill de Blasio that if his Administration caves to the racist NIMBYism from some residents of the Upper West Side and forces vulnerable New Yorkers from their hotel rooms back to congregate shelters before it is safe to do so, Legal Aid will immediately file litigation seeking a temporary restraining order on behalf of the Coalition for the Homeless and the nearly 18,000 single adults who sleep in Department of Homeless Services shelters each night."

The threat comes a week after de Blasio said that the city would begin to move homeless shelter residents living in hotels back into congregate shelters. Legal Aid contends the decision is motivated by threats from Upper West Siders, not a change in the safety conditions that led to the hotel program.

"The City has continually stated that these New Yorkers — many of whom are medically vulnerable and immunocompromised — will be moved only when public health guidance deems it safe to do so," said Legal Aid Society, in a news release. "There is currently no scientific evidence to support moving people from hotel rooms to congregate facilities. The Mayor is clearly only responding to threats of litigation from a vocal group of well-resourced community members of the Upper West Side."

Despite the mayor's comments, a Department of Homeless Services representative said in a public meeting on Monday that there was no definitive timeline for moving the residents out of the three Upper West Side hotels.

NIMBY — or "not in my backyard" — refers to opposing proposed developments in residents' local community, while often not raising similar objections to developments elsewhere.

Upper West Side hotels getting temporarily converted into homeless shelters has been a lightning- rod issue in the community since the end of July, when 283 men with a history of drug addiction and other mental health issues were moved into The Lucerne on 79th and Amsterdam.

The nearly 300 residents at The Lucerne joined roughly 400 homeless shelter residents already placed into hotels at 77th and 87th and Broadway.

The community has had a split reaction to the new neighbors, but a Facebook group called Upper West Siders for Safer Streets is perhaps the largest voice in the conversation.

The group, which has grown to over 12,000 members, regularly shares photos shedding light on the neighborhood's homeless population's plights and consistently expresses concerns about their own safety with the nearly 700 people added to the community.

Members of the Facebook group recently created their own nonprofit called the West Side Community Organization, which operates under the creed that it "refuses to accept that nothing can be done to save our neighborhood."

The newly formed group swiftly raised over $100,000 and hired the high-profile attorney Randy Mastro to work with City Hall to address the neighborhood homelessness.

READ MORE:

• UWS Hotel To Become Temporary Homeless Shelter For 283 People
• Remove Sex Offenders From UWS Hotel, Council Member Demands
• UWS Pol Changes Stance On Sex Offenders In Neighborhood Hotel
• Dueling Hotel Homeless Shelter Petitions Divide Upper West Side
• UWS Community Board To Host Virtual Forum On Homeless Shelters
• UWS Pol Gives Update On Hotels Getting Used As Homeless Shelters
• 'We Do Not Have A Definitive Timeline': DHS Talks UWS Shelters