By Hanna Park
(NEW YORK) New York City plans to move about 8,000 homeless people out of hotel rooms and back to congregate shelters so the hotels can reopen to the general public, The New York Times reported Thursday.
The move, which would relocate homeless people out of 60 hotels by the end of July, comes as the city braces for economic recovery on the line.
“It is time to move homeless folks who were in hotels for a temporary period of time back to shelters where they can get the support they need,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference on Wednesday.
Since the pandemic lockdown began last spring, the city moved people out of the shelters to safeguard them from the coronavirus. In some cases, as many as 60 adults stayed in a single room, according to the Times.
New York City would need the state’s approval to remove the homeless people, but a spokesman for Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that as long as all shelter residents — including the fully vaccinated — wore masks, the state had no objections to the plan.
On Tuesday, most of the city’s pandemic restrictions were lifted as 70% of adult residents received at least one vaccine dose, according to federal data.
While the hotels have brought complaints from neighbors about the noise, outdoor drug use and other nuisances from the hotel guests, many homeless people – who are battling mental illness or substance abuse – said they do not wish to go back to living in the streets again.