- The homeless shelter will be created inside the former Park Savoy Hotel in New York city’s Billionaire’s Row
- The area includes the most expensive home in the United States – a $238 million penthouse sold in 2019 – and the tallest residential building in the world
- Famous faces such as Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez, Sting and Trudi Styler have all bought property along the streets
- The hotel closed in 2018 and locals have been fighting the plan to put a homeless shelter there ever since
- They argue bringing 140 men to the 70-room hotel is unsafe, arguing the building does not meet fire regulations owing to its few exits
- The shelter will cost $63 million over nine years, or $50,000 per person, according to the West 58th Street Coalition, which is campaigning against the shelter
- They argue that the money would be better spent on a bespoke building designed for the needs of the men who will live there
- The shelter is part of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s ‘Turning the Tide’ plan to create 90 homeless shelters across the city
A homeless shelter is to be created on one of New York City‘s most expensive streets, after a legal battle to prevent its opening ended in defeat.
A New York state appeals court on Thursday dismissed the concerns voiced by a coalition of residents and businesses from the Manhattan neighborhood by Central Park, nicknamed Billionaire’s Row.
Billionaire’s Row is not actually one street, or officially defined.
Real estate agents describe it as an area south of Central Park, between 57th Street and 59th Street from north to south, and stretching from 8th Avenue in the west for eight blocks east to 2nd Avenue. Trump Tower is just to the south.
Bill de Blasio, mayor of New York, launched an initiative called Turning the Tide, which aimed to create 90 homeless shelters across the city.
One of the chosen sites was the Park Savoy Hotel, which closed permanently in 2018.