Assemblyman Francisco Moya (D-Jackson Heights) is looking to improve the situation at an underpass by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in Jackson Heights, saying it’s become a hangout for vagrants.
“They’re lighting fires,” Moya said. “They’re smoking marijuana, drinking. It creates a very unsafe area for the residents who are living there.”
The lawmaker personally visited the underpass, by 35th Avenue and 69th Street, after a constituent emailed his office about the problem. They were joined by a community affairs officer from the 115th Precinct.
In addition to homeless people sleeping and loitering there, Moya said the underpass is “very dark, even during the daytime.”
The assemblyman has requested the NYPD temporarily place floodlights at the site and increase patrols in the area.
He’s also looking for the homeless people there to be brought to proper housing and get the services they need.
8 comments:
Looks like there are plenty of housing projects to put these people, right there behind him, already being paid for with our tax money. What luck! Now, more of our tax money wont need to be wasted on hotel nights for the local highway homeless.
"Get the services they need", how bout tax paying citizens get the services they need first.
What are the complaints about? This is the vibrant diverse city we all voted for. Embrace and be proud of it!
I believe this is is the spot where a homeless guy actually leaves his bed (a roll-up mattress) rolled up in a corner every day because hey, who ever is going to impinge on his right to reside there? This is happening everywhere in this crappy area. The little "park" (really just a collection of benches) on 69th and Woodside Ave is home to drunk guys who often fight and try to smash each other over the head with bottles. They drove one PS 12 crossing guard to quit, as she feared for her safety (not to mention the safety of the children she was responsible for crossing to and from that corner). The Vietnam Veterans Plaza on 76th and Broadway has ppl living in it- they sleep under the bushes at night, and leave hygiene items (razors, soap, dental picks) and clothes there. I'm glad that Moya is trying to do something about the BQE, but I fear that the most that will come of this is that the "bums" will clear out (to one of the above-mentioned alternative local encampments) for a few days, until Moya and concerned citizens declare the problem solved and move on. Actually no, that won't even happen because they'll never get the homeless off the site anyway. As my precinct's captain told concerned citizens, "It's not a crime to be homeless"- you cannot arrest them, and you cannot force them into shelters. This is just the status quo, Queens, sorry.
that is not a housing project right behind them this is a block off of Leverich Street a nice area - tell this to your Mayor who has made the city this way
The shelters are so wonderful!
I wonder why they would not like to go into a shelter, so that they can "get the services they need "...
Anonymous #1, as bad as the projects are, there's still a waiting list to get in. I don't think there is a single vacant space in this whole city, certainly not one the homeless could afford.
>"It's not a crime to be homeless"
inb4 some genius declares it should be a crime to be homeless.
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