A luxury Upper East Side hotel has spent years serving as a quiet homeless shelter, and neighbors say the city cut them out of the loop entirely.
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city → spend → loop
The Bentley Hotel, a 21-story tower at 500 E. 62nd St. where rooms once fetched more than $200 a night, is housing 197 people under a taxpayer-funded contract, according to Highland Park Community Development Corporation, the Brooklyn nonprofit running the operation, Upper East Site first reported.
uncertain
Site → fetch → operation
The hotel took in homeless New Yorkers displaced from crowded congregate shelters back in May 2020, part of the city’s pandemic-era push to spread people out and slow the spread of COVID-19 inside dorm-style facilities.
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hotel → take → facilities
The Bentley resurfaced as a shelter in 2023, this time designated a Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center for asylum seekers arriving amid the migrant crisis, with Highland Park landing a $32 million contract to run it, Upper East Site reported.
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Site → resurface → it
Mayor Zohran Mamdani ordered the city’s last remaining HERRC, in The Bronx, be shuttered by the end of this year.
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HERRC → order → year
Yet the Bentley never closed.
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Bentley → close → ?
It simply got a new label.
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It → get → label
Highland Park’s marketing materials now brand the property a “Tier 2 family shelter” called “Yorkville Sanctuary,” even though the building sits in Lenox Hill, not Yorkville.
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building → brand → Hill
The pitch promises to help residents land on their feet.
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residents → promise → feet
“A Tier 2 family shelter, providing a safe and secure environment to families,” the materials read, according to Upper East Site.
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materials → provide → Site
“The goal of the program is to assist the families in locating affordable housing.”
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goal → assist → housing
This has the Upper East Side locals fuming.
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locals → have → ?
The Department of Homeless Services has a track record of alerting Community Board 8 when new shelters open nearby, notifying the board about a 92-bed site on East 91st Street and a 200-bed high-rise on First Avenue.
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shelters → have → Avenue
The Bentley got no such heads up, Upper East Site found.
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Site → get → heads
Tyler Hollinger, owner of Festivál Café on Second Avenue and a founding member of the East Side Accountability Alliance, said the building’s status was never exactly a mystery to those paying attention.
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status → found → attention
“We always knew that it was a shelter,” Hollinger told Upper East Site.
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Hollinger → know → Site
He argues the silence from officials fits a pattern.
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silence → argue → pattern
“It’s very clear that the community board and the government doesn’t really care what the people think, and they’re just going to do whatever they want,” Hollinger said.
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Hollinger → care → whatever
Richard Barcia, who lives on East 62nd Street, said he has no beef with the people staying there, just with the city dodging basic disclosure.
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city → live → disclosure
“I don’t have anything against these people — I know they need a place to live,” Barcia told the outlet.
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Barcia → have → outlet
He wants the city to come clean rather than let residents piece it together themselves.
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residents → want → it
“Why don’t they just put that out as a press release and just acknowledge what’s going on?” Barcia said.
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Barcia → put → release
Michael Bailey, a member of the East Side Accountability Alliance, accused the city of stonewalling.
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Bailey → accuse → city
“It seems like they’re intentionally misleading us,” Bailey told Upper East Site.
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Bailey → seem → Site
A Department of Social Services spokesperson confirmed migrant-specific shelters have been phased out citywide but would not say what the Bentley is currently being used for, citing confidentiality rules around shelter addresses.
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Bentley → confirm → addresses
The agency stopped short of denying the building is operating as a shelter, and did not answer follow-up questions about the terms of its contract with the hotel or what happened to people who were living there when the migrant program wound down.
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program → stop → people
Highland Park CDC and the Bentley Hotel did not respond to requests for comment.
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CDC → respond → comment
The Aporia
