NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday that the city plans to move homeless people who've been temporarily housed in hotels during the coronavirus outbreak back to shelters once the health crisis improves.
"Job one is get folks out of the hotels they've been in temporarily, back into the shelter system once it's safe," de Blasio said.
The mayor said housing the homeless population in hotels is "short term ... while we're dealing with this crisis, until people are vaccinated."
"Once we get through that, we're going to of course move out of those hotels and go back into shelter system," de Blasio said.
Asked by a reporter if the hotels could be converted to permanent housing sites, de Blasio said that when the city has control over a building "the goals is always to convert it to permanent, affordable housing."
"But we also have to have enough shelter available by law—and morally—for folks who need it," he added.
