100 Central Park South

Donald Trump tried to pack a building with homeless people to drive out rent-controlled residents

• August, 1982: Donald Trump proposed housing homeless people in his building at 100 Central Park South in an effort to encourage tenants to voluntarily leave their rent-controlled apartments inside the building. “All sorts of suggestions for housing the city's many homeless men and women have made their way to Robert Trobe, the Human Resources Administration official responsible for these lost souls. […] None of the ideas have appealed to Mr. Trobe, and now he has yet another offer to contemplate. It comes from Donald Trump, the developer, who wrote to the city agency that he would make apartments in one of his buildings available for the homeless at no cost to the city. This building, it might be noted, is at 100 Central Park South - not a run-of-the-mill location for shelters. Ten of the 100 rent-controlled or stabilized apartments are vacant, Mr. Trump said, and he hopes to empty the entire building within two years, to remake it into a hotel. ‘Multimillionaires’ live there, he said, and ‘I do not believe multimillionaires should be protected in rent-controlled apartments.’ But until renovations can begin, he added, why not give shelter to the more unfortunate? Mr. Trump agreed that putting these people there could measurably speed the emptying process, but he asserted, ‘I don't care.’ Meanwhile, Mr. Trobe said that while he would give the letter thought, ‘it hardly looks like something we would be interested in.’” (New York Times, August 7, 1982)