A Manhattan homeless shelter has kicked coronavirus precautions out the door.
The shelter at 127 W. 25th St. has made social distancing impossible by packing 25 people into each of two dormitory rooms on nearly a dozen floors, residents of the facility told The Post.
As many as 40 people are packed into the lunchroom, with “people literally standing shoulder to shoulder.”
Two residents told The Post that at least nine people have been removed from the shelter with COVID-19 symptoms, making them “sitting ducks for the virus.”
Photos obtained by the paper from inside the facility show sleeping cubicles lined up in rows with little room in between, and people standing in tight lines for food.
And they show trash and even clothing was strewn about in unsanitary conditions — making hygiene a challenge, the residents said.
“Just waking in the building you’re bound to catch coronavirus,” one resident said. “We’ll know when they put on the hazmat suits to pack up the other people’s belongings.”
They aired their worries as the coronavirus hits the Big Apple’s homeless population hard. Officials reported Wednesday that 274 New Yorkers who live in shelter, on the streets or in temporary housing have tested positive for virus.
The Department of Homeless Services has begun housing hundreds of homeless people in five city hotels in a bid to slow the pandemic’s spread, The Post revealed earlier this week.
One the shelter’s tenants said he remained “incredibly, incredibly concerned about staying there.”
“They don’t come through here, they don’t clean anything,” he said. “We clean ourselves here, but how can we stop a virus without disinfectant?”
City officials said that the Department of Homeless Services is “working to implement best practices in shelters citywide to increase social distancing and limit gatherings — and we’ve begun strategically transferring some of our most vulnerable clients, starting with those over 70, to dedicated shelters within our system for isolation out of an abundance of caution.”
They declined to address the specific complaints about the shelter.
