Despite a vow by Mayor de Blasio to reduce the use of hotels as shelters, the number of homeless in the pricey lodgings has skyrocketed 50 percent over the last few months, The Post has learned.
The average number of homeless individuals in hotels last month was 3,990 — up from 2,656 in February, according to the Department of Homeless Services.
After a homeless mother and two of her kids were killed by the woman’s boyfriend at a Staten Island hotel in February, the mayor announced a series of reforms.
He also pledged to cut the number of hotels used as shelters and eventually eliminate their use.
“We also intend to utilize hotels less and less and, as quickly as possible, to stop using hotels. That is our goal,” de Blasio said on Feb. 10.
“There will be moments when, because there is a particular need, we may have to turn to hotels. But the goal is to use hotels less and less and eventually stop using hotels altogether.”
There were 46 hotels leased for the homeless last month, only five more than in February — suggesting those already in use have taken in more residents.
The surge comes as the city’s homeless population is near a record-high 59,266 as of Sunday.
The hotel rooms cost an average of $161 a night.
City officials maintain they still intend to reduce and ultimately zero out the practice of sheltering the homeless in hotels, but the top priority is to get rid of
so-called “cluster” apartments — groups of units rented by the city in private buildings.
There are about 11,000 homeless people currently living in cluster sites.
“For 16 years, the city has been putting homeless families into rental apartments and calling that cluster shelters. Our priority is to end this policy and turn those apartments back into homes for thousands of families,” said DHS spokesman David Neustadt.
“While we stop using clusters, bring homeless off the streets and create new shelters, we have had to temporarily increase the use of hotels to meet our legal obligation to provide shelter to all who qualify.”
As The Post reported Tuesday, the city has begun using the fancy Excelsior Hotel on the Upper West Side to shelter the homeless.
There are also plans to convert a Holiday Inn in Maspeth, Queens, into a shelter this fall.
City Council member Elizabeth Crowley (D-Queens) said the city has no guarantee that clearing the cluster sites will create affordable units rather than market rate housing.
She opposes the Holiday Inn conversion and the use of hotels as shelters in general.
“It’s not cost-efficient, it’s not safe and it’s not fair to the people who are homeless,” she told The Post. “We have to move families out of hotels and shelters into permanent housing.”