A New York State Appellate Court has issued a temporary stay that allows around 200 homeless men to remain in a hotel on the Upper West Side for another two weeks.
The decision reverses a lower court decision from last week that permitted the city to move the men to another hotel in downtown Manhattan. The men will be able to stay at the Lucerne Hotel on Amsterdam and West 79th Street at least until mid-December, when a five-judge panel will take up the case.
“We’ve gotten closer to the goal of saying that we do matter, that we should be acceptable, not just here, but in any community,” said a Lucerne resident, who goes by the nickname Shams, during a Zoom call with reporters after the decision was handed down Thursday.
In July, around 200 homeless men were moved to the Lucerne in an attempt toprevent the spread of COVID-19 in the congregate shelters where they had been staying. Soon after their arrival, some Upper West Siders raised objections over loitering, public urination, panhandling and similar issues for which they blamed the homeless men, though it was never determined who was responsible.
After a neighborhood group threatened to sue, Mayor Bill de Blasio decided the men would be relocated to another location on Wall Street. But there a group called Downtown New Yorkers, Inc. formed to oppose the move and sued the city. After State Supreme Court judge Debra James dismissed the case last week, asserting she had no jurisdiction over the matter, the downtown group and homeless men from the Lucerne filed appeals.
The de Blasio administration insists that it will prevail when the appeal is fully reviewed later this month.
“This temporary stay has delayed a move which we believe is in the best interests of the men residing at the Lucerne and a justified use of the Mayor’s emergency powers,” said Nicholas Paolucci, a spokesman for the city’s law department.
City Councilmember Helen Rosenthal, who represents the Upper West Side and who has criticized the mayor’s decision to move the men in the first place, called on de Blasio to reverse course.
“The Upper West Side is the same old Upper West Side it always has been,” she said. “For that reason, moving the men only has a negative consequence for the men. Doesn’t make the Upper West Side any better.”
