Many of the families have applied to join waiting lists for city-owned apartments.

Officials at the agency said the residents should join the waiting list for other city-owned apartments.

Cheaper to house those homeless in city-owned apartments than to let them languish on the streets.

Since 1980, 14,169 city-owned apartments have been turned over to alternative management, mostly cooperatives.

Berlin, for example, has had a vast auction of state- and city-owned apartments.

While 45,000 people signed the petition, out of a population close to 500,000, there are 70,000 residents in the city-owned apartments alone.

Another was to stop using the shelter system as a route to getting a city-owned apartment.

At present 47 families remain in the hotel, and half of them are waiting to move into city-owned apartments found for them.

Under the existing plan, a total of 29,000 occupied city-owned apartments would have been renovated.

If they qualify, they will eventually move to housing projects or city-owned apartments.