A group of Queens elected officials has filed a lawsuit to prevent a hotel from being turned into a homeless shelter — because the rooms wouldn’t have cooking facilities.
Councilmember Elizabeth Crowley (D-Queens) is the lead plaintiff in the suit filed Wednesday to block conversion of a Holiday Inn Express in Maspeth, arguing that city rules require cooking facilities to be available to shelter residents.
Although the city could claim an emergency exemption, Crowley said the administration is allowing homeless contracts covering 3,000 private apartments with kitchens — known as clusters — to expire.
“What I want everyone to know is that the city has existing contracts with legal cluster shelters and they’re letting them expire,” Crowley told The Post.
She said even if the city begins to build facilities at the 115-unit hotel, that process “is not something that can happen overnight,” adding, “It’s not healthy, it’s not fair and it’s against the law.”
City officials said the conversion would not violate city statutes.
As The Post reported last week, the homeless population being sheltered at hotels has increased by 50 percent since February, to nearly 4,000 individuals