State Agency Is Last Hurdle For Billionaire's Row Shelter: Report

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — The city won a key a legal ruling in favor of it's plan to open a 140-bed men's shelter near Midtown Manhattan's "Billionaire's Row," but a state agency that has yet to sign off on the plan represents one final hurdle, according to reports.

The city and nonprofit shelter provider Westhab are ready to open at the former Park Savoy Hotel on West 58th Street, but the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance has not given the city its blessing, THE CITY first reported. The agency is still weighing an application filed two years ago to waive state regulations, and may wait to decide until a legal fight from the shelter's opponents has run its course, according to the report.

Lawyers representing the group suing the city — called the West 58th Street Coalition — in an attempt to block the shelter directly contacted the agency following an April court ruling in favor of the city, according to emails acquired by THE CITY.

"I write again … to ask OTDA to continue to refrain from certifying this dangerous shelter in its current condition while the legal process is playing out and the appeal is pending," attorney Randy Mastro, a former deputy mayor under Rudy Giuliani, wrote in the letter.

The West 58th Street Coalition is planning to continue its legal fight despite losing an appeal of the April supreme court ruling earlier this week.

A state court of appeals ruled Tuesday to uphold an April supreme court ruling that found opponent's arguments that the shelter is unsafe for occupancy and that the area is over saturated with shelters were insufficient, court records show. The West 58th Street coalition will now appeal the results of their former appeal, dragging out the long legal battle over a shelter first proposed in January 2018, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The West 58th Street coalition has likened the city's shelter to a "death trap" because units will not have a secondary means of exiting the building in case of an emergency. The group also wants the city to find a "more affordable" location for the shelter and believes that the shelter could bring crime to the neighborhood.

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. 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, people facing homelessness 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.

Read the full THE CITY article here.