Thursday, October 13, 2016

When government breaks bad

The de Blasio administration put out the following statement on Monday:
"Due to local opposition to housing homeless New Yorkers, we have not been able to convert this site into a full shelter at this time. We are renting rooms for employed single adults and providing onsite services and security.”
Then they didn't like the coverage that they received, which indicated that they caved. So they hastily arranged a press conference in the lobby of City Hall where Steven Banks answered questions. He said the following:
"We moved forward with our plan to put homeless New Yorkers in Maspeth last night. The property owner would not permit us to go forward with our full plan to use the full building."
Now, our blog has pointed the following out before, but it's worth revisiting.

According to the city's own RFP, they
1) do not target specific neighborhoods in which to open shelters and
2) the city reviews RFP responses from service providers and makes a determination
From DHS:

In order to meet its legal obligations DHS maintains an open-ended Request for Proposal process through which non-profit social service providers submit proposals to augment capacity. Although DHS does not target specific areas to open shelters, the agency strives to keep families near their communities as much as possible. This is an open-ended request for proposals, therefore, there is no prescribed due date for submissions. All suitable proposals will be reviewed by the agency on an ongoing basis as received.

Yet in Maspeth, the city held 2 public hearings and announced an opening date for a shelter before they had a viable RFP response from Acacia Network. Then they tried to pressure the owner after he said he wasn't interested. So they most certainly targeted Maspeth and broke their own rules for siting shelters.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

The saying goes you can't fight city hall. City hall will do whatever it wants despite opposition from communities. They will use propaganda against those to label us racists, heartless and unsympathetic.
It is always the one who speaks out against it that is labeled or intimidated. Yet why is communities is there such opposition to these plans? So to the social media posts that call us racist and child haters etc one question to you? You must have shelters in your area. How is it there? Are these people getting the help they need? How long are they staying at a temporary shelter? Do you see them being moved around?
Yes you can have a bed and a shower. Yet you are told to leave at a certain time and return a certain time. Unless you are working it's fine but what about those who do not work? Here in Maspeth we feel a hotel is not a proper place for them. At protests I do not hear white lives matter chants. I heard time and time again and even on NY1 how we would like them in 2-3 family homes. Yet no one remembers hearing that.
So before you call us ignorant and so forth we have a shelter up on Grand Avenue. There are two close by. We are diverse here and do not fear people of color. What we all want is for these people to have a proper place to live.
Oh by the way....the DHS states 250 of these people are from Maspeth. Ok so how do you justify the 30 and not from here?
So please stop this nonsense with the race card to me it is getting a bit stale.

(sarc) said...

"So they most certainly targeted Maspeth and broke their own rules for siting shelters."

Rules do not apply to our overlords, rules are for the subjects and serfs...

JQ LLC said...

There are just so many scandals it's hard to keep track. The Blaz is only taking advantage because of the precedent set by Bill Clinton's and George W Bush's presidencies and the most recent display of citizenry manipulation and the citizen's united legalization of the nation worldwide money laundering driving the Manifest Hillary campaign.

25 days till election day. 4 months for Preet to get the dope of park slope.

Elect Hillary 2016, impeach Hillary 2017

Anonymous said...

Why are cluster sites not being utilized and if DeBlasio and Banks truly believe in "fair share" why don't they propose to end the Right to Shelter law, so other States will stop shipping their homeless to NY and do their fair share?

Anonymous said...

Transparency is what this mayor said he will have. Have not seen it.
All I see is a very corrupt man who likes to intimidate and spread propaganda on citizens of this city who voice their freedom of speech. Right to a PEACEFUL protest with no VIOLENCE!
In some parts of the city you just moved in homeless into hotels without letting the community know. Are these people any closer to affordable housing? All these city owned abandoned buildings all over the city. Why do you not give New Yorkers a job and have these buildings fixed up for these people?
Winter is coming and when these people are asked to leave their hotel rooms for the day you are sending them out into the cold.
We need solutions here. Not a bandaid.

Anonymous said...

It's absurd that NY still has the Right to Shelter law and other states are busing their homeless here. If the Mayor and Banks truly believe in Fair Share then they will move to end this law in NY and make everyone accountable. This Mayor is clearly corrupt and taking care of his cronies who are getting rich off of the backs of the unfortunate. He's doing it, so they will take care of him when he's out of office. There is no other excuse why Cluster Sites for the homeless are going unused and sticking them in hotels. It is obscene that hotel owners are getting rich off of hoteling the homeless and the homeless are being warehoused like cattle. The media should do an investigative story to find out why no politicians are willing to explore ending the law that is damaging New York.

Anonymous said...

SO WHERE THE HELL IS BORO HALL, CITY COUNCIL, AND OUR ALBANY 'FRIENDS'?

YOU KNOW, THE PEOPLE ON OUR TAB TO SERVE OUR INTERESTS?

Anonymous said...

Elizabeth Crowley is playing both sides and pretends she is doing something but she goes along to get pay.

Anonymous said...

The Queens Democratic Machine is being challenged - something that has not happened in memory. They know that their control over us is smoke an mirrors, and the wide field that a barely engaged electorate gives them.

The problem is that the ship of state is starting to tilt badly, and that barely engaged electorate is waking up and having some serious questions.

The machine may give us a tough, hard facade, but its is very brittle. Everyone is beginning to realize that all those 'Hillarys' out there are full of crap and are hollow shells.