City Plans to Use Swanky Midtown Hotel As Homeless Shelter
(NY1) Michael Scotto, December 16, 2017 — Mayor de Blasio is pledging to open 90 new shelters across the city over five years. NY1 Has learned that one of them will be in a stately Manhattan building that until now has been a luxury hotel. Our Michael Scotto has the exclusive details.
The Hotel Chandler on East 31st Street is just a short walk from the Empire State Building.
The 148-room boutique hotel boasts “an air of stately elegance,” at a cost of more than $400 a night.
But next month, the hotel will close. And after some quick renovations, the 112-year-old building will reopen in January as a homeless shelter for 170 adult families, the first in Manhattan under Mayor de Blasio’s plan to open 90 across the city over five years.
The community was told about the plan late last month.
“Surprise, first of all, because the announcement came unexpected,” said president of the 29th Street Neighborhood Association Mario Messina.
The de Blasio administration says the shelter is needed so it can phase out controversial private apartments, called cluster sites, and expensive commercial hotels, which have drawn the criticism of the City Comptroller for their high cost and lack of services. Some rooms cost more than $500 a night.