A year into his second term, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s team still acts like a bunch of rookies when it comes to handling homelessness.
Post reporters Julia Marsh and Elizabeth Rosner discovered city officials supporting the conversion of an Upper West Side single-room-occupancy hotel into a homeless shelter. Never mind that SRO residents are typically just a step from being homeless themselves.
A new lawsuit claims that the city is harassing holdouts at the Hotel Alexander on West 94th Street into leaving their homes after City Hall decided it would convert the building into a 220-bed family shelter.
Irony No. 1: The City Council recently passed a tenant-protection law designed to deter such landlord harassment.
Irony No. 2: In its desperation for shelter sites, City Hall has literally gotten into bed with a dubious actor. Hotel Alexander owner Alexander Scharf is facing criminal charges after the crumbling facade of another property he owns at 305 West End Ave. killed a 2-year-old in 2015.
The city insists that no “rent-paying” tenants are being evicted and that any remaining holdouts won’t be ousted. But that’s not what tenant Flor Soto, who shares a room with her 70-year-old mom, told The Post.
With the homeless population at 77,000 and the city behind schedule in its plans to open 90 new shelters, it looks like de Blasio’s homeless czar, Steven Banks, has gotten desperate.