Homeless New Yorkers To Be Moved Out Of Long Island City Hotel

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — The Department of Social Services is moving homeless New Yorkers out of a Long Island City hotel where they have been staying during the coronavirus pandemic, according to city officials and news reports.

An unspecified number of people will be moved out of the LIC Plaza Hotel at 40-40 27th St. this coming weekend and next week, according to a spokesperson with the city's Department of Social Services, who declined to name the hotel "due to privacy." The hotel was identified in news reports by Gothamist and The New York Times.

Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters Wednesday that residents of Queensbridge Houses had complained about the homeless individuals who have been staying at nearby hotels during the pandemic, a move meant to cut down on crowding that can accelerate COVID-19's spread.

"I heard them at Queensbridge Houses when I was out there a few months ago," de Blasio said during a news briefing.

The Department of Social Services decided to move nearly 300 homeless men from the Lucerne, a hotel on Manhattan's Upper West Side, after a similar outcry from neighborhood residents

An agency spokesperson declined to say whether the backlash prompted that decision.

De Blasio said he made the decision himself after visiting the hotel.

"I went and saw for myself and the Upper West Side last week, and what I saw was not acceptable and had to be addressed because the idea is to always try and balance the need to serve homeless folks with the need for a community to continue to go about its life," de Blasio told reporters Wednesday.

Department of Social Services spokesperson Isaac McGinn said the relocation of the homeless individuals living in the Long Island City hotel is part of an effort to reduce the agency's footprint, an explanation also used to justify the decision to move homeless men out of the Lucerne.

More than 60 hotels across the city are being used to protect homeless New Yorkers from the spread of the coronavirus, he said.

“Our use of commercial hotels to combat COVID is temporary, and as part of our effort to continually review and streamline the footprint of our shelter locations, while always ensuring effective provision of services, we’re beginning to relocate individuals from several commercial hotel locations to alternative non-congregate shelter locations, where we can continue to implement social distancing and provide isolation," McGinn said in an emailed statement.

The homeless individuals being moved out of the LIC Plaza Hotel will go to family shelters.

The Department of Social Services said those shelters have enough room to house them, but WNYC reported that 500 people are being moved to make way for the newcomers.