New York to build homeless shelter in Manhattan

After a three-year legal battle, the government of New York will undertake the construction of a rhomeless shelter in an area known as “Billionnaire’s Row“, the millionaires’ corner, named for being one of the most exclusive in Manhattan.

The Democratic mayor’s office has defended this project since 2018 in the 58th street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, where formerly the Hotel Park Savoy.

A group of neighbors gathered in the “West 58th Street Coalition“They denounced the project in court, and highlighted above all the fire risks in this 1910 building.

But the appellate court of New York rejected their objections, which allows the project to move forward.

“We hope to open the doors in this place as quickly as possible,” said a spokesman for the mayor’s social services department after the court ruling.

“Billionnaire’s Row” is an area of ​​ultra-luxurious residential skyscrapers at the southern end of Central Park That includes some of the most expensive homes in the world.

Many rich and famous live there, including the billionaire Michael Dell that according to press reports bought a duplex in the One57 building in this area in 2014 for 100.4 million dollars, or the billionaire Ken Griffin, which in 2019 bought a quadruplex there for 238 million dollars.

The refuge It plans to host 150 people, all with employment or actively seeking employment. It will be monitored by security personnel 24 hours, and there will be a telephone line that will also work 24 hours to answer questions from residents of the neighborhood, said the mayor’s spokesman.

The decision takes place at times when New York attempts to relocate thousands of homeless people who during the pandemic were placed in Manhattan hotels, especially near Times Square. The mayor’s office hopes that tourists will start arriving soon, and that those hotels will reopen to their regular public.

During the pandemic the number of homeless people on the streets of Manhattan, fueling the controversy about what the mayor’s office should do in a city where rents are so expensive that they are inaccessible for many families.

DMZ

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