Movin’ on up –

July 24, 2020 – The city has been using hotels — which have mostly been closed or at reduced capacity during the crisis — as temporary homeless shelters for the last few months, because many city shelters are too crowded to allow people to safely socially distance. Among the local hotels that have been used as shelters are the Belnord Hotel and the Hotel Belleclaire.

Rosenthal and Project Renewal say that The Lucerne will have 50 staff members and there will be 18 security guards and two supervisors on duty at each shift, “pending final budget approval.” They plan to conduct block patrols every 30 minutes. People who don’t adhere to “Good Neighbor” rules may be transferred to other shelters. Residents will be tested for Covid before arriving, and no one who tests positive will be placed at The Lucerne, Rosenthal wrote.

The Lucerne was built in 1904. The restaurant Nice Matin is on the ground-floor level.

It’s not clear how long The Lucerne will be used as a shelter. On one online travel site, the first available dates when rooms show up for tourists are in December (though that may simply be the online travel software and not an indication of the expected length of stay).

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