Turkish owner shelters guests
A New York City Turkish restaurant owner has been providing shelter and meals to people experiencing homelessness for eight years, a story that gained traction on social media. (x.com)
Ali Riza Doğan, the owner of Ali Baba Mediterranean & Turkish Cuisine in Midtown Manhattan, has been letting unhoused New Yorkers sleep in his heated vestibule on freezing nights. (thetablet.org) Doğan runs the restaurant at 224 East 53rd Street, and a recent Good News Movement video said he also hands out food to people on the street every week. The video said he has kept up that food distribution for eight years. (thetablet.org) (24vids.com) The Tablet reported on March 12, 2026, that Doğan posts a sign in the window during extreme cold inviting anyone outside to come in for the night. People sleep in the entry vestibule, not the dining room or kitchen, and the space is heated and dry. (thetablet.org) Doğan told The Tablet he started helping after remembering his own first winter in the United States in 1986, when he arrived from Ankara, got lost in New Jersey, and slept in a heated hallway. He said he was 20 years old and had been in the country for three days. (thetablet.org) The story landed as New York City’s shelter system remained under heavy strain. The Coalition for the Homeless said 90,803 people slept in the city’s main shelter system each night in February 2026. (coalitionforthehomeless.org) Street homelessness also remained visible across the city. A New York State Comptroller report citing the city’s 2025 Homeless Outreach Population Estimate said 4,504 people were counted unsheltered on a single night in January 2025, up 9 percent from the prior year. (osc.ny.gov) City outreach and shelter programs operate year-round, and the Department of Homeless Services said its daily reports track outreach contacts, placements, drop-in center use, and safe haven beds. On April 9, 2026, the agency reported 461 outreach contacts and 73 placements. (nyc.gov 1) (nyc.gov 2) Doğan’s restaurant has a longer record of serving people in need than the latest video suggests. In November 2017, Daily Sabah reported that Ali Baba Terrace in New York hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for homeless people and others in need. (dailysabah.com) The recent video gave that work a wider audience, but the core details are local and concrete: one Midtown restaurant, one heated entryway, and weekly food runs that Doğan has continued for years. (24vids.com) (thetablet.org)
