Many of us have been looking forward to this time of year for the last three months; since that first bead of sweat inched down our faces in June we’ve been pining for pumpkin spice everything and foliage that seems only Gotham can do.
However, there are too many people across the five boroughs that see that first 62-degree day as a portent of the punishment just around the corner. The 60,000+ homeless New Yorkers know that the Big Apple’s unforgiving winter is just licking its chops, ready to pounce on the helpless in just a few weeks’ time.
This crisis will haunt this administration—and our beloved city—long after Mayor Bill de Blasio & Co. move on to the next office.
The latest bit of bad news comes hidden inside a New York Post report with the headline: “Buyers see bargains in oversaturated hotel biz.”
“New York City’s hotel-building boom has led to an oversupply of rooms,” the lede reads, “and enticing deals for aggressive acquirers who believe prices have finally hit a bottom.”
According to the Post’s story, in 2007, there were 73,692 hotel rooms and 357 hotels. By 2017, that number jumped to 115,532 rooms and 632 hotels. Another 18,960 rooms will join the already oversaturated market by 2020, the tabloid groaned on Monday.
In Queens, hotels—boutique and chain—are popping up left and right—mostly left, as the Western swath of the World’s Borough seems to be bearing the brunt of the boom.
So, what do new hotels have to do with the undomiciled? They are a portent of things to come.
In this city, today’s hotel is tomorrow’s shelter.
In February 2017, Hizzoner unveiled what he characterized at the time as a “comprehensive borough-based plan to reduce the footprint of New York City’s homeless shelter system and drive down the population of homeless New Yorkers relying on shelter.”
Titled “Turning the Tide on Homelessness, Neighborhood by Neighborhood,” the 114-page vision to address the homeless crisis outlines the timing and logistics of ending the use of 360 cluster sites and commercial hotel facilities. Replacing the sites will be 90 traditional shelters distributed across the five boroughs, de Blasio promised. According to the administration, the new network will be able to more effectively house the homeless near the communities, jobs, school, houses of worship and support systems needed to help them get back on track.
With this plan, the mayor pledged to “completely eliminate the use of cluster apartment units by the end of 2021 and commercial hotel facilities by the end of 2023; reduce the current number of shelter sites by 45 percent.”
Since then, the homeless population has only increased. Before you know it, hotels-as-shelters will follow the same track. It’s as if we can see the end of the movie before the screenwriter has finished the final page of dialog.
The Post story is not about more hotels in the city—it’s about the shelters that are waiting around the corner.
