Q&A
Discussion on the Lucerne Hotel homeless shelter situation
4:30:25
·
117 sec
Council Member Brewer and Randy Mastro discuss the controversial situation at the Lucerne Hotel, which was used as a homeless shelter. They have differing views on the conditions and handling of the situation.
- Mastro confirms he spoke with city officials about the Lucerne issue, but not directly with the mayor
- Brewer argues that the main problem was lack of services, not the hotel conditions
- Mastro mentions issues like doubled-up occupancy in single rooms
- Both agree that the initial handling of the situation was problematic
Gale A. Brewer
4:30:25
Okay.
4:30:26
When you I was at the Lutheran Hotel, most of that situation, did you speak to mayor De Blasio privately to persuade him to move homeless out of the CERN Hotel.
4:30:37
I have a different impression than you did.
4:30:39
I think that the city moved people in there too quickly.
4:30:42
There were no services.
4:30:44
Project renewal did provide services as time went on, but I think that the way in which it was handled from ab, a to 0 was wrong.
4:30:53
But did you talk to the mayor about moving homeless out of Luzern Hotel to go downtown?
Randy Mastro
4:30:59
I did not talk to the mayor personally.
4:31:03
I I did reach out to the city about the Lucerne issue.
4:31:08
I did speak to Steve Banks personally, and I did speak to the corporation counsel personally.
4:31:15
And I committed to work with the city to address the problem.
4:31:19
And mayor De Blasio, and and a letter was sent to the city, including addressed to mayor De Blasio asking him to go to Lucerne and view the conditions himself But I did not speak to him.
4:31:33
The city decided to do that, and mayor De Blasio did go there.
4:31:37
And as you said, counsel Bloomberg, the conditions in those early months were deplorable.
4:31:44
And there needed to be a solution.
4:31:47
And we worked shoulder to shoulder with that progressive mayor and his progressive team to try to find a better solution.
Gale A. Brewer
4:31:56
I mean, the conditions in the hotel weren't bad.
4:31:58
It was just there were no services.
4:32:00
That was the problem.
4:32:00
Correct.
Randy Mastro
4:32:01
And they were doubled up.
Gale A. Brewer
4:32:02
I mean, people did have own their own private rooms in some cases.
4:32:05
I just wanna make it clear.
Randy Mastro
4:32:06
But they they were mostly doubled up.
4:32:08
COUNCIL 1, but that was a problem.
4:32:10
That was a problem.
Gale A. Brewer
4:32:10
Those rooms are quite nice.
4:32:12
It's a lovely, you know, expensive hotel right now.
4:32:14
It's not like it was a dump.
4:32:16
So that has to be discussed differently.
Randy Mastro
4:32:19
I didn't say it was a dump.
4:32:20
I said they were doubled up in single room occupancy.