The Bentley Hotel, a 21-story building at 500 E. 62nd St. in Manhattan, is housing 197 people under a taxpayer-funded contract, according to Highland Park Community Development Corporation, the Brooklyn nonprofit running the operation, as Upper East Site first reported. Members of the East Side Accountability Alliance and residents of the surrounding blocks say the city did not notify Community Board 8 that the building was in use as a shelter.
Bentley Hotel on Upper East Side houses 197 people as shelter, nonprofit says
The Bentley Hotel, a 21-story building at 500 E. 62nd St. in Manhattan, is housing 197 people under a taxpayer-funded contract, according to Highland Park Community Development Corporation, the Brooklyn nonprofit running the operation, as Upper East Site first reported. Members of the East Side Accountability Alliance and residents of the surrounding blocks say the city did not notify Community Board 8 that the building was in use as a shelter.
The building has been used as a shelter before. It took in homeless New Yorkers displaced from crowded congregate shelters in May 2020, part of the city's pandemic-era effort to spread people out and slow the spread of COVID-19 inside dorm-style facilities, according to Upper East Site. It resurfaced as a shelter in 2023, designated a Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center for asylum seekers, with Highland Park securing a $32 million contract to run it.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani ordered the city's last remaining HERRC, in The Bronx, closed by the end of this year. The Bentley did not close, and instead carries a new label: Highland Park's marketing materials describe the property as a "Tier 2 family shelter" named "Yorkville Sanctuary," although the building sits in Lenox Hill, not Yorkville. The materials state: "A Tier 2 family shelter, providing a safe and secure environment to families," and "The goal of the program is to assist the families in locating affordable housing," according to Upper East Site.
The Department of Homeless Services has notified Community Board 8 when new shelters opened nearby in the past, alerting the board about a 92-bed site on East 91st Street and a 200-bed high-rise on First Avenue, Upper East Site reported. No such notice was given for the Bentley, the outlet found.
A Department of Social Services spokesperson confirmed that migrant-specific shelters have been phased out citywide but would not say what the Bentley is currently used for, citing confidentiality rules around shelter addresses. The agency did not deny that the building is operating as a shelter and did not answer follow-up questions about the terms of its contract with the hotel or about what happened to people living there when the migrant program wound down. Highland Park CDC and the Bentley Hotel did not respond to requests for comment.
- The source does not state the current terms, value, or funding status of any contract under which the Bentley is operating.
- The source does not state the date to which the figure of 197 people housed applies.
- The source does not state what happened to residents of the building when the migrant shelter program wound down.
- The source does not state when the building began being described as a "Tier 2 family shelter."
- The source does not state why Highland Park named the property "Yorkville Sanctuary" although the building is in Lenox Hill.
- The source does not state the city's reason, if any, for not notifying Community Board 8 about the building.
Read the original at New York Post