Residents will get their say at a public hearing next week about the Department of Homeless Services’ plan to turn the Westway Motel on Astoria Blvd into a permanent homeless shelter.
The Department of Homeless Services’ plan to convert the shelter into a permanent facility comes six months after the agency unexpectedly turned the hotel into a 121-family facility for those needing long-term shelter. The agency was only given a six month contract to offer shelter for 121 families in this fashion under an ‘emergency contract’ with the city.
Westway, located at 71-11 Astoria Blvd, has traditionally provided the homeless with shelter for one night only—and that has mainly been when other city shelters were beyond capacity.
The city, however, must approve the Westway ‘contract’ before it becomes a permanent facility. As part of the process, the city is required to hold a public hearing.
The public hearing is scheduled for Jan. 15 at 10 am, at 125 Worth Street. The public is encouraged to attend and is free to give testimony.
The Comptroller’s office will then review the permanent ‘contract’ and then render a decision, according to a DHS spokesperson.
8 comments:
"The public hearing is scheduled for Jan. 15 at 10 am, at 125 Worth Street. The public is encouraged to attend and is free to give testimony."
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Yeah, that's right. They're all gonna schlepp into way-Downtown Manhattan. Why not schedule this "public hearing" NEAR the public? I guess they learned their lesson from that filled-to-the-rafters meeting last Spring at the Astoria Museum of the Moving Image - where they got their heads handed to them.
DHS always have the hearings at Worth St. and are during the middle of the work day They are usually announced at a Fri. afternoon document dump. Anything to discourage the working public from attending.
Couldn't agree more. It will not happen in my lifetime, but it should be required that public hearings be held in the vicinity of the property they are concerned with....
Where is the Council member who will introduce this bill?
Doing it the current way definitely does make sure that input is minimal or non-existent.
Hey y'all - read the whole article. Crappy left out the best sentence:
"Councilman Costa Constantinides would not comment on the issue."
"Councilman Costa Constantinides would not comment on the issue."
How appropriate.Did this really catch CB1 off-guard?
This is prime real estate, why couldn't they try to broker a deal with owner & a developer to convert to residential apartments? With all the projects developers have received approval for from CB1 these past years, this wouldn't be too much to ask for from any of them.
"This is prime real estate"
WHAT? There is constant, twenty-four hour whoosh and roar of traffic.
Currently they are stripping the facade and have uncovered the original colored striped finish and small colored tile from when place was new in 1963.
Check out the Astoria Post article on an armed robbery posted on 1/16/15. It is relevant.
They have not reported the beating and mugging of the school custodian at PS2 by two "fathers" of children now attending the school from the shelter. This is a crime that was probably not reported by the 114th precinct, or, if it was, it will not appear in the crime statistics because the police want to show that the Shelter is not affecting crime in the neighborhood.
Shame on our elected officials who supposedly represent the neighborhood. Constantinides won't comment because he has nothing to say--or he has some political motivation not to go against the DiBlasio administration. Shame on all of them.
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