Sunday, April 26, 2009

Preventing illegal halfway houses

From NY1:

Miracle House Incorporated is a group of at least eight so-called halfway houses. According to their fliers, the organization provides a "safe and sober environment," but both the New York City Fire Department and the Department of Buildings beg to differ.

According to these agencies, none of the buildings are certified to be anything but two or three-family houses, and the Fire Department has issued vacate orders to several of them for dangerous conditions related to overcrowding.

The Department of Homeless Services denies these charges, but Councilman Bill de Blasio, who's running for public advocate, proposed a bill to the City Council Wednesday that would make DHS responsible for shelter residents, even after they move out.

"This literally would just prohibit the city from sending anyone to a location known to be unsafe or overcrowded or to have a large number of violations of the building code," said de Blasio. "This is information that's readily available. There's no reason the department couldn't track this carefully and send people only to safe places."

The Coalition for the Homeless strongly supports the councilman's proposal.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Alright - how do I get complaint to FD about similar housing in my nab without getting killed?

Anonymous said...

I bet when those homes were built, they looked nice.

Anyone that does that do their house should be laughed at. Might explain why people's eyes roll back in their head every time Queens is mentioned.

Can you blame them?

What can be done do elevate the public's understanding of tasteful rennovations?