Posted on October 9, 2020 by Dave Giffen, Josh Goldfein in The New York Daily News The New York Daily News, By Dave Giffen, Josh Goldfein The recent debacle surrounding the city’s use of the Lucerne Hotel on the Upper West Side to shelter homeless men during the pandemic, and Mayor de Blasio’s Sept. 8 order to transfer the men out of that hotel in response to NIMBY — and, at times, outwardly racist — outcry from some community members, have brought to light the urgent need to devise and implement a well-reasoned and coherent approach to providing emergency shelter to homeless people at this phase of the COVID-19 crisis. All we’ve gotten to date are reactive, whipsawing policies thrown together in response to public-health crises and political complaints. Individuals and families experiencing homelessness in New York City have a legal right to shelter under the state Constitution. Even before the pandemic, the city’s severe shortage of housing affordable to low-income households fueled an ongoing homelessness crisis in our city. The unprecedented economic fallout from the pandemic has further exacerbated the crisis, and will undoubtedly fuel more suffering in the months and years to come.
