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Aug. 2, 2019 By Allie Griffin.
The working homeless population that was living within Maspeth’s Holiday Inn Express has officially been removed, according to Council Member Robert Holden.
In May, the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of the hotel’s property owner, KCM Realty Company who filed a lawsuit against the practice.
The company claimed that New Ram Realty’s arrangement with the Department of Homeless Services and the Acacia Network to temporarily house working homeless individuals in the hotel violated the terms of their lease.
Moreover, New Ram’s agreement with the city violated the New York City Zoning Code by allowing individuals to stay in the hotel for more than 30 days at a time.
The removal also comes as a victory to Maspeth residents, who routinely protested against the hotel-turned-homeless-shelter outside its front doors.
“I will continue to work with local faith-based organizations to come up with solutions for housing our neighbors who have fallen on hard times,” Holden said. “Smaller, more personal settings are the most effective way for us to take care of our own, as the Mayor has requested.”
Since 2017, Mayor de Blasio has pledged to phase out the use of hotels as shelters by 2023 while simultaneously seeking to build 90 standalone shelters across the city.
It’s not immediately known where the homeless were relocated to.
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