Lucerne Residents Begin Final Move Out Of Upper West Side Shelter

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — One by one, the majority of the remaining men still living at The Lucerne temporary homeless shelter on the Upper West Side made their way out of the hotel's big wooden doors on Monday morning and onto a white bus that would take them back into the congregate shelter system.

The men walked alone out of the Upper West Side hotel with bags draped over their shoulders into a crowd of locals, activists, and media that had formed to watch the final moments of The Lucerne saga in the 9 a.m. heat that had already passed 85 degrees.

Halfway through the small journey from hotel door to bus entrance the men were handed Know Your Rights and reasonable accommodation forms.

While a couple of the shelter residents engaged with the crowd and media, most of the men walked onto the bus with their eyes only focused forward — as shelter employees used paper plates to shield the resident's faces from unwanted photos and cameras.

The beginning of the final exodus out of the Upper West Side shelter that these same men walked into for the first time 11 months earlier comes after the mayor's decision to put an end to the temporary hotel shelters erected during the coronavirus pandemic.

"It's been up and down. Sometimes my confidence goes up and then gets let down. I feel as if they could have sent us to permanent housing, instead of sending us back to the congregate shelters," said a Lucerne resident who identified himself as Michael. "It makes me want to say forget it, and be in the streets again."

Another person in attendance Monday was Marcus Moore, who works for the nonprofit Picture the Homeless — which aims to support New Yorkers in the homeless shelter system. Moore had spent the weekend visiting different hotel temporary shelters across the city that were closing down to make sure the transition for residents was going as smoothly as possible.

"This right here is uncalled for because we are moving people back into congregate shelters while were still somewhat in a pandemic. Back in the day, it used to be from shelter to permanent housing, this is not permanent housing," Moore told Patch.

The Upper West Side Open Hearts Initiative, a coalition of local neighbors that have supported the Lucerne men since they moved in at the end of July 2020, hosted a press conference outside the hotel after the final man had boarded the bus.

UWS Open Hearts Initiative founder Corrine Low made sure to specify to the crowd that the men were being moved Monday because of the mayor's choice to end temporary shelters, and not due to the back and forth legal challenges that some Upper West Side residents have mounted against the shelter.

"The city keeps making the wrong choice," UWS Open Hearts Initiative founder Corrine Low told Patch. "This is a total disgrace."