Queens Crap: City pays $3600 to house 3 people in one room

Friday, June 19, 2015

City pays $3600 to house 3 people in one room

New York News
From Fox 5:

A Queens family of three fell on hard times and went from middle class to underclass overnight. They're looking for a helping hand, not a handout, but they say the city's homeless shelter system keeps giving them the runaround.

A room with old blankets tacked up to cover the windows is home to a teenage girl and her parents, Carla and Tim Winterhalter. They say the city pays $3,587.65 per month to house them at the Corona Family Shelter. That is more than double what it would cost them to get their own apartment in a nice neighborhood.

Winterhalter has been a union iron worker for 20 years, but when his wife's employer went out of business last September they couldn't afford their rent and landed in the shelter system. They are depending on public assistance for the first time in their lives.

Carla Winterhalter said she is trying to be strong for her daughter, but it is not easy.

The family of three sleeps and lives in the one room, which has a small kitchen area and a bathroom. Winterhalter says the Department of Homeless Services offered them apartments in tough neighborhoods, which he declined out of fear for his daughter's safety. When he finds a place, he says the red tape of the rental assistance program takes too long.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...: That's a whole lot of money to house just three people! This story just goes to show you that nyc is way too expensive to live in though and the taxpayers have to foot the bill for people who unfortunately are down on their luck! The government should stop selling our property to chinese developers and start making actual affordable houses in decent areas here. The government though is greedy and always loves foreign investors and welcomes them with a green card in hand! It's a shame when we can house people who don't even belong here before we house our own people in decent areas (I'm not talking about crackhead or alcoholics here). The government should make the so called "affordable housing units" more cheaper in decent neighborhoods. Just like you have to make 75k to live in housing in hunters point. If you made 75k in this city, you could definitely afford your own apartment in this city but if you're making 55k, then it's a whole other ballgame. When I looked at these "affordable housing", I make 56k and its me and my daughter and I can only qualify for rockaway which is 3 blocks from the projects...why would I want to move my daughter close to project housing? Maybe the government should make this affordable housing opened to only people who were born and raised in nyc and who have ok jobs and let us pick where we want to live first then worry about all the illegals and foreigners after that. You know half the people (mostly foreigners) who probably are applying for affordable housing will probably stay where they are now and rent it out for 2x the price they pay. They do that in the projects even!; Friday, June 19, 2015
Anonymous said...: We are going to see more and more homeless shelters opening in our City (but not in any of the "blessed" neighborhoods.) The Charter requires working with the community, analysis to avoid over-saturation, all kinds of things - yet damned if any of that is followed. The result: the hearthless are placed in inappropriate - indeed, often dangerous! situations, and the community gets labled as heartless. HRA & DHS needs to get their collective act together!; Friday, June 19, 2015
Unknown said...: i'm sick of this level of stupid worked 20 year and SAVED ZERO..how incompetent financially can you get....

its just like the idiot homeowners heloc their "gains" then cant pay it back whining on tv about it...oh those evil banks....

what no family they could move in with, no yard sale and move to a smaller apartment, is their credit that horrible no one would rent to them....

sorry if they spend their life savings on a life and death operation for her hubby or kids, then i could feel sorry for them.; Friday, June 19, 2015
Anonymous said...: How do I get into this business-- build a hotel in Queens? Sounds very lucrative.; Friday, June 19, 2015
Anonymous said...: A broken system. It boggles the mind that the City is willing to pay twice the amount for inferior accommodations in bad neighborhoods. Just today I saw an ad for a beautiful 2 Bedroom apt in a super nice blg. in Rego Park on Yellowstone Blvd just off Woodhaven for $1,800. Somebody has to fix this insanity!!!; Friday, June 19, 2015
Anonymous said...: Richard stefan.....you don't know their situation so you really can't "judge" them for not saving anything. Housing in nyc is really way too much money and hardly anyone can afford it anymore! It's so hard to keep up with the cost of living here! How do you know they didn't have money saved and did have a huge medical expense? How do you know that the father even had a lot of work in the last few years? I have a cousin who is a construction worker and just sat in the union office just waiting to be called for work. He didn't get much money since he was not working. The family maybe went through their life savings when they were trying to afford the inflating rent prices here. How do you know that his landlord didn't just up his rent all of a sudden? He did say that his wife lost her job so they were probably living off of one salary and unemployment for a little bit now and when you have a child and rent and bills to pay, that money does go fast. You don't know their situation. Not everyone just "blows through money". My father worked for ups since 1978 and back in 90s ups went on strike and my father was out of the job and my mother could not work due to a disability. The food stamps office turned my father down for food stamps because ups had literally told all of the offices not to give any of their employees any food stamps so we had to rely on church handouts for food and what little my father did have. Finally ups union got off of the strike and my father went back to work....my father had a mortgage to pay and 2 kids and a wife to feed. So you see you never know someone else's situation until you have been in their shoes!; Friday, June 19, 2015
JQ said...: Seeing this story, which should actually should merit an episode of Frontline, 60 minutes or dateline, was frightening. It confirms everything I commented here about the fates of the middle class and working poor to try to live in this city turned theme park. It looks like they and families like them have been symbolically convicted to live in squalor because they don't make enough money to pay exorbitant market rate rents.

This is utter madness. And what an ugly irony that it costs more than the rent that a family like this would pay for an apartment in Bushwick.

Another reason this story should be longer is what supposed non-profit organization is running that building they're dwelling in. Is it Samaritan Village or one of those other corrupt groups? Our local news media better get on the friggin' ball and do some legitimate reporting and cease the entertainment bullshit and viral videos.; Saturday, June 20, 2015
Anonymous said...: is this a White family that is being stonewalled by the black mafia at HRA & DHS? or is it a black/latino family that is scamming to get ahead of those on the wait list for Section 8/TDAP/working advantage or other housing vouchers? These vouchers pay about 2/3rds' of the monthly rent. How do you think so many illegal immigrants get decent apartments?

A well known ghetto get over is to claim you are homeless, stay in these dumps three or four nights a week and spend the rest of the time at a relatives house. You are registered HOMELESS and get pushed to the front of the line for other housing.

Besides, if the father was truly injured, he would be on SSD and get his pension from his job. This means monthly checks.

But two adults and they can't pull something together? Sad story. Good luck to hem.; Sunday, June 21, 2015