The shop is zoned for commercial use, and the basement does not have the required certificate of occupancy to permit people to live there. Mr. Arcángel has not made the necessary applications to the Department of Buildings to convert it into habitable space, which would require an inspection to determine if it is safe to do so.

The absence of permits has not deterred Mr. Arcángel, who says his reasoning for opening his basement to the homeless is simple. “Because they don’t have,” he said. “And I do.”

Mr. Arcángel is certainly not the first person to harbor the homeless in an untraditional setting. In Chicago last week, a man agreed to stop allowing homeless people to stay in his basement during frigid nights; in Brooklyn, a woman who had been sheltering the homeless in her home for decades eventually became the inspiration for a play, “Queen of Chesed,” that debuted last year.

Because Mr. Arcángel’s makeshift shelter is likely illegal, he asked that the precise location and name of his store not be disclosed. Between six and a dozen people live in the basement at any given time, he said.