The city is making these folks homeless to make room for … the homeless.
The de Blasio administration is pushing more than 100 residents out of their Upper West Side single-room occupancy to make way for a homeless shelter, a new lawsuit charges.
Holdout residents of the Hotel Alexander at 306 W. 94th St. say they were harassed into leaving their units after the city announced that it would convert the building into a 220-bed shelter.
“I would be on the streets and I would not have a home,” said Flor Soto, one of the few remaining holdouts, explaining what would happen if she loses her $400-a-month pad at the Hotel Alexander.
Now Flor, her 70-year-old mother, Hilda Flor, and neighbors Marlon Moctezuma and Adan Angel are suing to prevent the shelter’s expected opening on Thursday.
The four remaining residents are joined in the Manhattan Supreme Court suit by local neighborhood groups.
“The Alexander hotel residents have been intimidated and received verbal warnings that they will be evicted… in order to make room for the shelter residents,” the suit says.
“In order to harass all of the building’s residents, Defendants were engaged in mid day painting and cutting off the water supply, all without prior notice,” the suit says.
The Sotos, who have lived in the building for 33 years, said the landlord never warned them that their longtime home would be turned into a shelter.
The building is owned by Alexander Scharf, who is facing criminal charges by the city after the crumbling facade of another property he owns at 305 West End Ave. killed a 2-year-old in 2015.
Scharf was charged with misdemeanor violations of the city’s administrative code, including failing to maintain the building in a safe condition. He faces up to a year in jail and a $25,000 fine.
Now the city will be paying him an undisclosed sum to house the homeless.
“It’s amazing sometimes what different arms of the city will do,” said attorney Stewart E. Wurtzel, who brought the shelter case.
The West 94th Street shelter, which will be run by Praxis Housing Initiatives, will replace a nearby facility on West 95th Street called the Freedom House that’s scheduled to close over public safety issues.
Reps for Praxis did not return a message seeking comment.
A hearing on the dispute is scheduled for Wednesday.
City lawyer Haley Stein said in court papers filed ahead of the emergency hearing that the remaining tenants won’t be evicted and insisted the recently vacated units are urgently needed to house homeless families because the city’s shelter system is at capacity.
A de Blasio administration spokesman said, “No rent-paying tenants are being evicted, period, and we’ll follow up with the landlord to ensure that message is clearly communicated.”
Additional reporting by Rich Calder