While city officials embark on a campaign to dismantle homeless encampments across town, the state government should provide millions in new funds to convert hotels into permanent residents for the unhoused, according to Shams DaBaron.
The advocate for the homeless, also known as Da Homeless Hero, penned a letter to Albany legislatives Tuesday in hopes that the lawmakers will consider the plight of the homeless when finalizing the state budget, due on April 1. Governor Kathy Hochul, Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie were among the list of elected officials DaBaron encouraged to include hotel conversions in the final budget plans.
Hotel conversions is the proposed process of turning unused New York City hotels into affordable housing designed to accommodate homeless individuals. This became a popular notion amongst homeless rights advocates after many hotels were used to accommodate the undomiciled amidst the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the city works to get rid of an estimated 150 encampments around town, Mayor Eric Adams has urged homeless residents to seek help at the city’s shelter system — something which many homeless residents have eschewed out of previous incidents of violence and harassment there. DaBaron believes that the long-decried shelter system is not the answer.
“In my conversations with Mayor Adams, he has made it clear to me that he cares about homeless New Yorkers. At last year’s Mayoral Housing Forum, he even said his administration would lead with a housing first agenda. But the low number of New Yorkers sleeping on the subways who’ve accepted placement into shelters doesn’t make anyone proud, so we need to be real about why: congregate settings aren’t a viable solution. We need to develop more private safe haven beds, stabilization beds, and housing opportunities with wrap around services. That’s why I’m calling on the Governor and State Legislature to encourage hotel conversions and include the Housing Access Voucher Program in the final budget,” Shams DaBaron said.
DaBaron believes the situation can be remedied with potentially thousands of new housing units created through hotel conversions.
“I am urging you all to include hotel conversions in the 2023 budget. Governor Hochul included language in her proposed 2023 executive budget that would make it possible for hotels to be converted to permanent housing, but that language was not included in the Senate or Assembly versions of the budget. It should be added back in so that any Class B hotel (places with more than 50 rooms) in New York City can be converted into permanent residences. Right now, there are 18,000 empty hotel rooms in New York,” DaBaron wrote.
DaBaron credits the Lucerne Hotel on West 79 Street for saving his life by providing him with stability through a private room. DaBaron hopes that offers will be able to find the same.
