Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
NYC families displaced by Hurricane Ida to be removed from downtown hotel
By
Bahar Ostadan
Published Feb 26, 2023
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
By
Bahar Ostadan
Published Feb 26, 2023
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Roughly 50 families displaced by Hurricane Ida have until Tuesday to move out of a lower Manhattan hotel, and anyone without a place to go will be taken to a homeless shelter.
The city Department of Housing Preservation and Development has used hotels and other emergency shelters as temporary housing for roughly 380 families since the storm flooded sections of the city in August 2021. The agency has placed over 300 families in permanent homes, according to a spokesperson.
A FEMA program paid for the temporary housing until the federal aid dried up in December. The city was forced to foot the bill, and issued a $1.4 million dollar contract allowing displaced families to remain at the Millennium Downtown hotel on Church Street until the end of February.
But come Tuesday, city officials will transport any remaining families to the family homeless intake shelter in the Bronx.
“Even though federal funding already ended for the emergency hotel rooms, we will continue working tirelessly until all of these families have a place to call home,” a spokesperson for the department of Housing Preservation and Development said in a statement.
The agency connected families who qualified with emergency housing vouchers to use on the open market. But that was a painstaking process for many New Yorkers displaced by the storm, like John Abrams, who spent a year searching for a landlord who would accept his voucher after Hurricane Ida shuffled him, his wife and five kids between three emergency hotel shelters.
Abrams said that while HPD officials helped him navigate the process after the storm devastated his East New York home, he was turned away from roughly 25 apartments by “downright wicked” landlords who didn’t want anything to do with his emergency voucher. There was not much HPD officials could do, he said.
After visiting 50 apartments, Abrams finally settled into a Woodhaven, Queens home in October.
When asked about landlord voucher discrimination, a spokesperson for HPD said the agency has been working with developers to schedule apartment viewings and secure units that would otherwise fall under the city’s housing lottery.
Families who are undocumented don’t qualify for the federally-funded vouchers. While some were eligible for cash assistance from the state Office of New Americans, others will have to go through the city’s shelter system.
Hurricane Ida devastated low-lying areas, flooding apartments and subway tracks and destroying homes across the city.
The storm was responsible for the deaths of 13 people, all but two of whom drowned when they were trapped in basement apartments.
Tagged
new york city
manhatan
Bahar Ostadan
Bahar Ostadan covers the NYPD and public safety. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or message Bahar on Signal at 646-740-7335.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
NYC tow companies busted for ripping off drivers must give $67K in refunds, city says
Mayor Mamdani has expanded enforcement on towing scams, but the unlicensed towing industry remains largely unregulated.
By
Liam Quigley
Published Oct 2, 2026 at 4:47 p.m. ET
Off-duty NYPD officer stabbed in the Bronx, police say
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Commissioner Jessica Tisch visited the officer in the hospital.
By
Ryan Kost
News
Off-duty NYPD officer stabbed in the Bronx, police say
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Commissioner Jessica Tisch visited the officer in the hospital.
By
Ryan Kost
DOC negligence factored in death at Rikers' Bellevue hospital outpost, jail officials say
By
Brittany Kriegstein
Conductor on NYC subway that dragged man to death may have skipped safety check, source says
By
Stephen Nessen
NYPD still searching for man who threw burning substance on victim in East Harlem
By
Ryan Kost
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .