By Leslie Albrecht
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER WEST SIDE — The city is paying for homeless people to stay in two single-room occupancy hotels it once tried to shut down.
The two SRO hotels, on West 95th Street, were the subject of a 2007 lawsuit the city filed to stop the hotels from renting rooms to tourists.
Now the same building owners the city slapped with a lawsuit are being paid by the Department of Homeless Services to rent rooms to homeless men.
DHS has rented rooms since 2009 for 59 adult men at 330 W. 95th Street, also known as the Fresh Hostel, and 141 adult men at 316 W. 95th Street, also called the Candy Hostel, a DHS spokeswoman said.
The homeless men receive services at the hotels, including meals, employment services, housing assistance, and case management services, a DHS spokeswoman said.
SRO hotel owners turned to renting rooms nightly to tourists because it paid more money than renting rooms to long-term residents. But a new law that goes into effect in May outlaws renting rooms to tourists, so SRO building owners need other ways to pay their bills. City contracts are one way to do that.
DHS did not respond to questions about how much money it pays for the rooms, but advocates who work with SRO tenants say they've seen instances where DHS pays $2,000 a month per room.
Long-term residents usually pay a few hundred dollars a month for their SRO rooms, whereas tourists pay about $90 a night to stay at Fresh Hostel, according to TripAdvisor.com.
When the city filed its 2007 lawsuit against the SRO hotel owners, it argued that owners were illegally converting the buildings to accommodate tourists, which made for unsafe conditions that hurt the quality of life of the building's long-term residents.
The legal battle was intended to preserve SRO hotels as cheap, permanent housing for low-income people, instead of budget accommodations for travelers.
"The city seems confused about its goals," said Yarrow Willman-Cole, a tenant organizer with the Goddard Riverside SRO Law Project.
"While on the one hand they have cracked down on illegal hotel operations, they have also neglected to follow through on their supposed commitment to increase the availability of affordable permanent housing."
The city ultimately lost the 2007 court fight. But state lawmakers took up the issue and passed the law that goes into effect in May that stops SRO hotels from renting rooms to tourists.
The two SRO buildings on West 95th Street are among more than a dozen on the Upper West Side that face an uncertain future under the new law.
The SRO buildings on West 95th Street aren't the only ones turning to city contracts to pay their bills. At the Hotel Alexander at 306 W. 94th Street, a nine-year $8 million contract will allow DHS to put a 200-bed homeless facility in the building.
Local officials have sharply criticized the plan, because they want SRO buildings like the Alexander to serve as permanent, affordable housing for low-income residents.
