Mayor to open shelter for homeless men near Carnegie Hall

The de Blasio administration is planning to put a men’s homeless shelter around the corner from Carnegie Hall, Central Park and the Ritz-Carlton.

The 150-bed shelter for single men from Manhattan would go in what is now the Park Savoy Hotel, at 158 W. 58th St. in the borough, between 6th and 7th avenues, according to a spokesman for Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Department of Homeless Services.

The shelter could open as soon as next month.

The mayor’s shelter plans come as the city grapples with a yearslong rise in the number of homeless people that predated, but has risen sharply, under his mayoralty. About 63,169 people slept in city shelters Tuesday night, according to the Coalition for the Homeless group. There were 53,615 in shelters in January 2014, when de Blasio took office, under the group’s tally.

The area where the shelter is to be placed “is a neighborhood that has done very well,” de Blasio said Tuesday afternoon at an unrelated news conference. “They also have to participate in this effort to ensure that we have enough shelter.”

De Blasio hopes to open 90 shelters around the city “in every kind of neighborhood.”

A man who answered the Park Savoy’s front desk line said the hotel was undergoing renovations that began about a month ago — “the rooms, hallways, painting, changing carpet.”

“I don’t know if there is a homeless shelter coming in. I just know they’re doing renovations right now,” said the man, who gave his name only as David.

David said that the hotel, which advertises itself as “economically priced,” currently has no guests and isn’t accepting new renovations.

“My understanding is that will be a long-term facility, not short-term pay-by-the-day hotel,” de Blasio said.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.