The former Pan Am Hotel, which opened June 5 as an emergency shelter for families, and the Westway in East Elmhurst, which opened July 9 as an overnight shelter, are now beginning the process to transition into permanent shelters, according to the Department of Homeless Services.
Since its opening, the Westway has become a space for families and is expected to become a permanent residence for more than 100 families, officials said.
By law, the city can operate an emergency shelter for six months before making the facility permanent, according to an official.
Under the transition process, which begins after the six-month deadline, the city must seek a long-term contract for the shelter and also schedule public hearings, which will be posted in the City Record, an official said.
DHS will also provide advance written notice of the hearing to each borough president, as well as the City Council and the comptroller, they said.
The draft of the proposal will also be available at DHS's Manhattan offices for the public to view, an official said.
It's not clear the exact type of work that will need to be done to the Pan Am, but all family shelters are required to have a separate kitchen for each room, according to an official.
The rooms at the former hotel currently lack that and residents have eaten in a communal ground-floor area since June, according to a source.
14 comments:
What do you mean they did nothing?
They helped facilitate it happening.
Where does the City's "Mandate" to shelter the homeless come from? Seriously, I want to know how legitimate this mandate is. Is it some arcane law, or is it something "Progressives" have dreamed up to make themselves feel good about each other. I feel it's most likely something BDB and MMV & JVB came up with to pay off contributors to their campaigns...
The mandate comes from court decisions based on wording in the state constitution. If you want residency requirements, the state constitution needs to be changed. There is no statewide ballot initiative in NYS, everything goes through the legislature. Two successive legislative sessions must pass the amendments and then it goes on the ballot for a public vote. The 3 ballot questions on this year's ballot did just that.
More post-election day good news. BTW Can anyone explain why DNA Info puts the number of NYC homeless residents at more than 57,000 (which I have seen elsewhere) and the HUFFINGTON POST reported on 10/27/2014 that the number of students in NYC school system was 77,915 . How can there be more students than total residents? What is the total number of Homeless in NYC (children and adults)?
That study that HuffPo cited also counted kids who had to move in with grandparents or other relatives, who were kind of couchsurfing. Misleading, to say the least.
Hey, everybody stop whining. You all voted these politicians in over and over again. Until Queens smartens up and throws these bums out, Queens will be infested with Homeless Shelters.
This is coming to more areas-- I see it in far eastern queens where old retail is being leveled to put up new hotels. Since when did Bellerose and Floral Park need 4 or 5 hotels? They never did. Once these are up, their owners will lock in lucrative-never-to-be cancelled-city contracts to house homeless.
Crappy, the mandate comes from LaGuardia's tenure as mayor, when an amendment to the state constitution was passed. The amendment created a right to shelter, where the state (the city in this case) must provide housing to individuals without shelter. Bloomberg talked a lot about this in his radio programs. He tried for several years to get Albany to repeal the amendment to save the city budget but was repeatedly shot down.
We are waiting to see the reaction from Frick and Frack, the "Upzone Twins" from Dutch Kills, when the first hotel becomes a human warehouse.
Then George and Jerry may have to move.
Don't worry, Rose Marie will close it down.
Its not Astoria south of Ditmars where YOU would be told to "move".
please read this artilce from the NY times, lady comes all the way from Florida with 2 disabled kids and ends up homeless. she had no family and friends here, so why did she come here??? we need residency requirements, enough is enough, we can't be the dumping ground for trash anymore! i can't wait to move outta this dump!
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/02/nyregion/a-mother-who-provides-round-the-clock-care-finds-solace-in-her-home.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Fneediest-cases
"Bloomberg talked a lot about this in his radio programs. He tried for several years to get Albany to repeal the amendment to save the city budget but was repeatedly shot down."
BLOOMBERG!? Bloomberg wanted it shut down???
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dhs/downloads/pdf/dailyreport.pdf
32749 adults, 24897 children homeless in shelters
That's nice, but that doesn't resolve the conflicting numbers. The total number of children in shelters will include many who are not school age yet.
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