Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and other local politicians sent a letter yesterday to the mayor’s chief enforcement officer claiming the Salvation Army is using the Williams Residence at 95th street and West End Avenue as an illegal hotel. Building owners cannot rent out rooms to tourists in residential buildings in New York.
The residence in the midst of a controversy relating to the Salvation Army’s decision to sell the building to a private developer and move tenants to a new facility in East Harlem. Brewer and others have fought the nonprofit’s attempts to sell the building, which still needs to be reviewed by the attorney general and a judge.
We sent the letter to a spokesman for the Salvation Army but did not receive a comment on Friday. See the letter below:
What a hero Gale Brewer is. She’s against “transient hotels” (i.e. backpackers from Sweden) but is fine with long-term drug addicts living rent-free as long as they have a “lease.” Paid by us. Bravo Gale!
Amen Scott!
that is the truth.
She created the law that is destroying our community.
Hold her accountable.
Gale is working to save the homes of several hundred UWS seniors. That deserves a real “bravo”!
Sorry there isn’t a dam thing she can do
this is being done in a non NYC court judge as required by law.
The way to have stopped this would have been a few years ago when the SA sold other properties and started mentioning that this location was in need of large dollar amounts of upgrades and repairs. It has been public knowledge/information for several years that they were looking for a funding line for the building or they would have to sell it.
The $$$$ wasted on the West Park Church at 86th street should have been spent here and/or used as a loan grantee to allow SA to fund the repairs through a lender.
What our elected officials do not seem to realize is that the Salvation Army provides housing for transients on an emergency basis after a disaster. When someone’s home burns down usually the first to be there after the FDNY is the Salvation Army.
The SA also has provided grants for people who can’t pay their rents when they are unemployed. They are doing a better job than some of our government agencies.
The odds of the Salvation Army selling this place and relocating as planned just shot up to 100%.
why is that?
This is in keeping with Gale Brewer’s master plan to screw up the West 90’s. She doesn’t miss a beat.
Just saying it is so doesn’t make it so. So how is this going to make the Salvation Army not sell their property? It just shows how little the elected officials can or want to do.
Private organizations know what’s best for themselves. Set guidelines for good, reasonable and enforceable rules on the UWS and throughout NYC. Even with this in play, the UWS doesn’t follow rules no matter what they are and that includes the elected officials.
For some reason the UWS has gone crazy. Of course the Salvation Army should stay. And of course the shelters should not be there. Fact.
I am sick of nonprofits getting the benefits of being a nonprofit then taking amazing amounts of profit on real estate deals and abusing the people that supposedly are the target of their charity. The SA has been going through a building binge across the country; the least they could do is show some charity to the residents of this building. End tax exemptions for Churches and large well resource d nonprofits now!
The Salvation army has done a lot for people in need. I don’t think that relocating seniors into a newer building with better facilities is a bad thing. The residents are being given plenty of time to make other arrangements. The process of decommissioning this site has been in the process for a while.
I’d like to know what proof BP Brewer has to support her accusation that the Salvation Army is indeed running an illegal hotel at the Williams. Is it advertising on airbnb? And even if that is the case, is it even illegal for a non-profit? The laws are often murky at best.
Certificate of occupancy information on line shows the building to be a Class A Hotel.
https://a810-cofo.nyc.gov/cofo/M/000/075000/M000075633.PDF
The owners of the SRO at 342 West 71st st have started to rent out empty units at market rate. Does anyone know how they were able to just take these units off rent stabilization? I am sure that many other landlords would like to do the same.
report it to Helen Rosenthal’s office.