Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Westway not the best way

Just a few months after Alex Bolanos moved into his new home in East Elmhurst, the 32-year-old was welcomed by smashed windows on his car.

Motel housing homeless draws wrath of neighbors

The culprits, he later learned from neighbors, were homeless adults - put up by the city at the Westway Motor Inn just a block away - who were wandering the streets at night.

The city Department of Homeless Services pays Westway, at 71-11 Astoria Blvd., on a per-diem basis to handle overflow of families from its homeless shelters.

But locals fear the motel is working to strike a deal with the city to turn the part-time shelter into a full-time facility.

By using uncontracted motels, the agency avoids the land-use review that allows local community boards to weigh in on placement of social service agencies.

Homeless Gone From Westway Motel

Communities Deserve Information, Not Rumors

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

How nice - a shelter in a middle class neighborhood - fewer of these left they way the city thinks of us - flooding basements, illegal conversion (blind eye DOB)and now shelters.

I suggest the city convert the huge Park Ave Armory on 66th. Street in Manhattan into a shelter. This would enable 2,000 clients to sleep and enjoy the relative saftey of the area. After all where are all these clients from? Only the rich and poor can afford to be liberals, so why not build a shelter on Park Ave and be with each other?

Anonymous said...

How many of the "lodgers" are illegals? They come uninvited, then cause more trouble. Any wonder we don't want them?

Anonymous said...

I think there is a homeless shelter at the armory. They just know how to disguise it.

Anonymous said...

This reminds me of the old days that got Il Giuliani elected. The buttwipes that did the crime are just crooks, not all people needing shelter are.

http://todayeye.wordpress.com/2007/05/19/sleep-1/

Anonymous said...

wonder if some of the out of the way hotels that have been going up here and there are going to become secret city shelters too?

Anonymous said...

Absolutely..."Ken".....
if their occupancy levels drop !

That poor homeowner didn't seem to have
many options.
What a shit hole location to buy a house in
in the first place.

Anonymous said...

They have been useing Westway for this for decades.

Every few years headlines like this appear - a politicians gets their photo op and coverage by the lapdog press, then disappears.

Anonymous said...

Look out Dutch Kills. Your new hotels will become this after they find out that they are losing money and when it comes time to freshen them up, its just easier to dump them to owners who will use them for human warehouses.

Look on the bright side - those people are the stuff of the tweeded.

Anonymous said...

"human warehouses"

great term, hee hee.

Anonymous said...

Democratic Dictionary

"Human Warehouse"

tower of the tweeded

Chris said...

Alex Bolanos should get himself a shotgun.

Anonymous said...

homeless people used to wash car windows, now they smash them.