Upper West Side Residents Hold 'Sleep Out' Outside The Lucerne

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — The Upper West Side Open Hearts Initiative hosted an art protest and sleep out in front of The Lucerne hotel Saturday night to raise awareness for the homeless.

The homeless population that was recently moved into three Upper West Side hotels has become a divisive topic within the community, but the UWS Open Hearts Initiative is a coalition of neighbors "who know that in tough times we need to come together and open our hearts to those less fortunate."

The group has actively supported welcoming the homeless shelter residents into the community.

On Saturday, members of the group spent 12 hours — from 6 a.m.-6 p.m. — outside of The Lucerne, where 283 men with substance abuse issues were moved in at the end of July.

UWS Open Hearts Initiative kicked the night off with an "art protest," where people drew pictures and welcoming images outside the hotel with chalk.

The allotted time for the sleep out was 9 p.m. 6 a.m., and the group committed to the overnight stay for the following reasons, according to its Facebook page:

• "We sleep out to raise awareness and support those who do not have stable housing."
• "We sleep out to demonstrate our commitment to equity."
• "We sleep out to take a stand against injustice."
• We out because safety and compassion are neither mutually exclusive nor incompatible concepts."

Here are some pictures from the Saturday night event:

View this post on Instagram

Last night I participated in a art protest and sleepout with @uwsopenhearts to bring attention to how the unhoused are poorly treated and attempts to criminalize poverty. We specifically wanted to highlight how people who are temporarily being housed at a few Upper Westside hotels are being subjected to racism, hostility, and dehumanizing attacks. The sleep out portion was not to trivialize what unhoused people go through since one night on a sidewalk in a nice sleeping bag is obviously not anything like what unhoused people go through. It was to bring attention and media coverage to show that some of us want to address the problems with more compassion. The art protest was sponsored by @theallstreetjournal Those who are opposed to the temporary shelters often bring up quality of life issues all of which are unfairly attributed to the shelter residents without realizing because of the pandemic and economic crisis all parts of the city are seeing more stressed unhoused people. I wanted to note that the only intoxicated people I noticed were a group of very intoxicated local residents out for the night. The other was a very intoxicated guy who came to tell us that he thought all the shelter residents were lazy despite the fact that many of the shelter residents work. This intoxicated man also cursed and yelled at us in front of kids. We also had one older man who walked by splashing water on the sidewalk chalk art that was created by mostly kids and at our belongings And again this was in front of the kids. And of course as I posted earlier we found a noose and the MAGA ass came to tell us White Lives Matter. Many also did let us know they supported what we were doing. This included many shelter residents who have been subjected to a lot of hate. They are very aware of the hateful things said about them. I ended up leaving around 1:30 AM because I couldn’t sleep and I needed restroom accommodations. Right now many public restrooms are closed so for unhoused people finding restrooms is a major problem.
A post shared by Sonni Mun (@sonnimun1) on Aug 30, 2020 at 6:26pm PDT

View this post on Instagram

The Upper West Side is committed to supporting temporary hotel shelter residents and their service providers. Many of those seeking to relocate the residents have been the most vocal, but today and tonight, we hope to demonstrate that the Upper West Side is open to everyone. Yes to compassion in our backyard! Thank you to everyone who came out today and to those who are sleeping out with us tonight. Thank you to @theallstreetjournal for joining us for the art demonstration.
A post shared by UWS Open Hearts Initiative (@uwsopenhearts) on Aug 29, 2020 at 8:52pm PDT

View this post on Instagram

Thank you so much to everyone that came out to support the temporary residents at the Lucerne Hotel. We are proud to be in collaboration with @uwsopenhearts for this demonstration. Housing is a human right and all deserve to be in a safe and hospitable environment. Housing justice is racial justice. . . . . . . . . . #housingjusticeisracialjustice #homeless #nyc #community #upperwestside #protestsigns #newyork #protestwithart #endracism #equality #neighborhood #nycneighborhoods #welcome #blacklivesmatter #nycprotest #streetart #nycstreetart #art #uws #blm #peacefulprotest
A post shared by The All Street Journal (@theallstreetjournal) on Aug 29, 2020 at 6:44pm PDT

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