Investigators Dressed As Plumbers Spied On Pro-Lucerne Campaigner

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — The attorney for an Upper West Side group that has spent months pushing to move a temporary homeless shelter in a neighborhood hotel sent private investigators dressed as plumbers to the new home of a former resident and pro-hotel campaigner, according to new court documents.

Ramone Buford — otherwise known as "Da Homeless Hero" — has become a central figure and voice in The Lucerne saga that has gripped the Upper West Side since the end of July.

Buford, who lived at the hotel, is also a petitioner urging the city to keep the homeless men on the Upper West Side rather than move them to a permanent shelter in the financial district.

There are still over 100 men living in the UWS shelter, down from 283 when it first opened in the summer.

Buford's role in the case, along with two other petitioners, is the reason that Attorney Randy Mastro says he sent private investigators to his new Harlem apartment.

Mastro's team, along with the de Blasio administration, recently pushed the court to shut The Lucerne shelter, stating that Buford and the two other named petitioners have moved out of the Upper West Side facility and into permanent housing.

Buford had been homeless since the age of 10, before recently landing permanent housing in Harlem through the city at the end of February.

Mastro sent the private investigators to Buford's new home to take a picture of him, in their words proving that Buford no longer lived in The Lucerne.

The private investigators succeeded in taking a photo of Buford shirtless without his knowledge and submitted it in a March 12 legal filing.

"I was just getting to know what it's like to have a good night's sleep," Buford told Gothamist. "To now become a target of them is horrifying...I'm right back on guard. Every little sound I'm jumping up."

Mastro argues in a motion filed on Monday that he needed to hire the private investigators because Buford's attorney, Michael Hiller, continuously declined to acknowledge that Buford had moved out of The Lucerne.

Hiller denies this claim, according to the court documents.

Isaac McGinn, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeless Services, told the Gothamist that Mastro's deployment of disguised investigators was an "absolute egregious invasion of this individual's privacy."

"We are truly disheartened by this violation of Shams DaBaron’s privacy and dignity in his own home. Actions like this exacerbate the trauma that people who have experienced homelessness struggle with every day," said Eric Rosenbaum, the CEO of Project Renewal, the organization that runs The Lucerne shelter and others across the city. "DaBaron has been a tireless advocate, mobilizing support for New Yorkers experiencing homelessness and helping to ensure that their voices are heard."

The recent filings by Mastro were done so on behalf of the West Side Community Organization, a nonprofit that came out of a Facebook group of Upper West Siders who opposed the new homeless shelter in the neighborhood.

The group raised nearly $200,000 this past summer to pay for legal fees in the hopes to push the city to disband the temporary shelter within The Lucerne.

The West Side Community Organization did not immediately respond to Patch regarding whether they knew of Mastro's decision to send private investigators pretending to be plumbers to Buford's home.

The story was first reported by the Gothamist.