'Billionaire's Row' Rages Against Planned Homeless Shelter

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — Residents and neighbors of a Midtown area known as "Billionaire's Row" packed an auditorium at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice Thursday night to blast a city plan to build a homeless shelter in the neighborhood.

Many locals called the proposed homeless shelter for 150 adult men inappropriate for the neighborhood, bemoaned the lack of community outreach on behalf of the city Department of Homeless Services and expressed concerns over safety and the cost of the shelter.

In January, the city announced plans to build a homeless shelter at the Park Savoy Hotel on West 58th Street in order to phase out the use of cluster sites and commercial hotels within the community district. The shelter is expected to open this Spring, but there is no definitive date, Jackie Bray of the Department of Homeless Services said Thursday.

"How did you choose this neighborhood? It makes no sense to me," one resident of Central Park South said during Thursday night's town hall. "Basically what you're telling us is this is a done deal."

Representatives from the Department of Homeless Services and Westhab — the nonprofit that will operate the shelter — answered questions about security measures at the planned facility, what the city will do to prevent nearby property values from dropping and why the Park Savoy Hotel was chosen to house a shelter.

The proposed shelter is part of Mayor Bill de Blasio's "Turning the Tide" plan to tackle homelessness in New York City, city officials said Thursday. That plan calls for the creation 90 new homeless shelters in various neighborhoods around the city, even wealthy areas like "Billionaire's Row." By building shelters in every part of the city, the homeless will not be forced to move out of their home boroughs and can be closer to their support systems or jobs while they seek permanent housing, city officials said.

But many area residents said that West 58th Street is simply inappropriate to house the homeless. Several people pointed out that the area is crawling with tourists visiting Central Park, and a shelter there would present a negative image of New York City to travelers. Another resident claimed that the future residents of the shelter would be demoralized and driven to crime by the neighborhood's $6 coffees and the expensive dresses hanging in Bergdorf Goodmans.

"These are homeless people, It doesn't matter what neighborhood they're in," a resident of 152 West 58th Street, a building next door to the Park Savoy Hotel, said Thursday. "They don't have a neighborhood, they don't have a home."

As representatives from the city Department of Homeless Services and Westhab attempted to quell concerns and answer questions about the new facility members of the crowd called out: "You don't live here," and "how do we stop it."

Borough President Gale Brewer, who presided over the town hall meeting, suggested that the only way to stop the proposal is to go to court.

The shelter at the Park Savoy Hotel will be called the Park Savoy Rapid Re-Housing and Employment Center and all of its 150 residents will be either employed or "employable," representatives from the nonprofit Westhab said. The nonprofit will also provide around-the-clock security featuring guards posted at shelter entrances and 56 new security cameras in the facility.

Community District 5 — which spans most of central Midtown between 14th Street and Central Park — is currently served by nine DHS facilities. The city currently houses homeless families in seven commercial hotel facilities within the district, a practice which has been criticized as costly and insufficient. The Park Savoy Hotel shelter will result in the phasing out of all seven hotel facilities.

The city plans to establish a Community Advisory Board for the new homeless shelter and include local elected officials, the community board, and local block and community organizations in future discussions about community concerns regarding the shelter, a DHS spokesman said.

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