UES Mutual Aid Network Donates Gloves, Socks To Hotel Shelter

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — A mutual aid group that formed on the Upper East Side last month made its first big donation on Friday, distributing winter clothing to several hundred men living at a temporary hotel shelter.

The 306 men living at the Bentley Hotel on East 62nd Street will receive one pair each of gloves, wool thermal socks and standard crew socks courtesy of the Upper East Side Mutual Aid Network

"We made an assembly line putting one of each item in the bag and did that for a little over two hours straight," said Patrick Bobilin, who organized the effort along with Zaki Molvi and Lindsey Cormack.

When it was founded in December, the Upper East Side network became the newest addition to the city's chain of mutual aid groups that began forming last spring during the coronavirus lockdown. Those groups are now active in dozens of neighborhoods.

Beyond helping the men stay warm in the dead of winter, Bobilin said he also hoped the donation would help the network strike up a bond with the Bentley Hotel, making it harder for opponents to drive out the shelter — as residents did, successfully, with the Lucerne Hotel on the Upper West Side.

"To say, look, there’s already a pre-existing positive relationship with the neighborhood," he said.

The Bentley Hotel shelter is managed by the Doe Fund. The socks and gloves will be distributed to residents by Bentley Hotel staff, Bobilin said.

Future items on the agenda for UES Mutual Aid include holding monthly clothing distributions for the neighborhood's street homeless population, and — after the next snowstorm — shoveling snow on wheelchair ramps and curb cuts to improve mobility for disabled and elderly residents.

Plans to set up a community fridge on the Upper East Side are also moving forward, Bobilin said.

The Mutual Aid Network is asking interested volunteers to email uesmutualaid@gmail.com.

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