Back in April, Mayor Bill de Blasio said moving homeless people out of crowded dorm-style shelters would help control the pandemic.

“We will use those hotels aggressively as a tool,” he said.

Within four months, the city relocated the majority of single adults: 10,000 people. By some measures the initiative has worked well. According to WNYC’s analysis, just 0.6 percent of homeless people tested positive for COVID-19 over the past four weeks—lower than the city’s general population. But after homeless men were moved into their neighborhoods, residents on the Upper West Side and in Midtown Manhattan began complaining about drug use, lewd behavior, and loitering.

Last week, de Blasio said the city would begin moving people back to shelters.

“We're going to start the process of figuring out where we can get homeless individuals back into safe shelter facilities and reduce the reliance on hotels,” the mayor said. “Hotels is certainly not where we want to be in general, and we're going to start that process immediately.”

City Councilmember Stephen Levin said the administration is being guided by the backlash.

“It's not good policy,” he said. “It’s pretty simple to me. The science is dictated by the fact that we have a public health emergency. So long as we have a public health emergency this is the policy that should be in place.”

So far, the de Blasio administration has given out few details about the plan, including when it will start. Shelter providers said they were blindsided by the decision. Catherine Trapani is executive director at Homeless Services United, a group that represents those non-profits that are now running both their shelters and the hotels.

“What you don't want to happen is to say, 'OK, mission accomplished,' and then move everybody back to a congregate site, remove all those protective measures, and then you're in a scenario where people may be at risk again,” she said.

A group of Upper West Siders says it will file a lawsuit unless the administration announces an action plan by Friday. Homeless advocates say they, too, will sue if people are moved before it’s safe to do so.