Wednesday, August 8, 2018

Pam's Place is a hellhole

"From July 11 through July 25, 2018 the Dutch Kills community was forced to endure three completely unacceptable incidents directly related to clients at “Pam’s Place,” a shelter for homeless women at the former Verve Hotel at 40-03 29th Street in Long Island City.

• At 10:30 p.m. on July 11th, shelter client Yaremis Perdomo, 33, became enraged and set her 51-year-old roommate on fire. Perdomo has since been arrested and is being held on attempted murder and other charges related to the attack. The roommate remains in critical condition at the New York Presbyterian Hospital’s Cornell Burn Unit with third-degree burns to her face, arms and hands.

• An unidentified shelter client stood in the center of the intersection at 29th Street and 39th Avenue at about 5 p.m. on July 23rd, tossing loose change into open windows of passing vehicles – snarling traffic, alarming motorists and creating serious safety concerns for pedestrians. Eyewitnesses told police that the shelter client backed off when she spotted police pulling up to the scene, making it impossible for the officers to observe her actions. This unfortunately made it impossible for the officers to charge or summons the woman. The best they could do under current law was to tell the woman to stop, which she promptly did.

• A shelter client viciously, and without provocation, attacked a local woman who was walking on 29th Street near 40th Avenue on July 24th. The unidentified assailant approached the woman, punched her in the mouth and fled. The attack was not reported to police at the 114th Precinct, an NYPD spokesperson said.

I have requested Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer’s chief of staff, Matt Wallace, to call an Emergency Meeting of the Community Advisory Board of “Pam’s Place.”

The purpose of this meeting is to discuss ongoing violent and/or dangerous conditions that spill from the shelter into the Dutch Kills community. These conditions result in a fearful, dangerous environment that substantially affects our residents’, business and quality of life.

The Dutch Kills Civic Association has requested that this meeting to be scheduled for a Tuesday or Wednesday evening at 7:30 p.m. Mr. Wallace has assured us that such meeting will take place in the near future.

The following is a portion of our agenda for this upcoming meeting. We are requesting:

• A listing of all incidents reported to the 114th Precinct regarding Pam’s Place, both inside and outside the shelter – including a client assault on a 114th Precinct officer.

• A complete breakdown of responses by FDNY and other ambulance crews relevant clients at Pam’s Place, both inside and outside the shelter.

• A complete listing of 911 and 311 calls seeking response to conditions at Pam’s Place, both inside and outside the shelter, from October 2016 current to the date of the upcoming meeting.

• A comprehensive report of all disciplinary actions taken by the operators and managers of Pam’s Place regarding troubled or combative shelter clients, from October 2016 current to the date of the upcoming meeting.

• A complete breakdown from the Department of Homeless Services and Sena Security of all incidents related to clients at Pam’s Place, both inside and outside the shelter.

Lastly, in order to ensure an open, transparent dialogue of issues surrounding Pam’s Placer Shelter for Homeless Women, we strongly urge that members of the press be informed and invited to provide coverage of the upcoming meeting.

George L. Stamatiades,
President
Dutch Kills Civic Association of
Long Island City

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

A shit hole area. Once "gentrified" it will vanish. Herd 'em out. Replace with high rise.
That's the NYC way. In the meantime, peaceful residents, either endure or move!

Anonymous said...

Whoa, a strongly worded letter, that will show 'em

Anonymous said...

Oh pa-lease - where were you when they were zoning this for big development and you were one of the senior people on the community board - what did you do to stop the displacement of your community?

Anonymous said...

>The shelter client backed off when she spotted police pulling up to the scene, making it impossible for the officers to observe her actions. This unfortunately made it impossible for the officers to charge or summons the woman. The best they could do under current law was to tell the woman to stop, which she promptly did.

Since when do police need to personally witness a crime in order to arrest somebody?

Anonymous said...

Isnt this in the cultured gentlemans Van Bramers district? There has been a number of incidences in his district the last few months surrounding these homeless shelters and there has been no words from him on these things. #wheresjimmy? He is probably taking a photo opp on the 7 train with Cynthia Nixon.

Anonymous said...

The entire leadership of Queens has to follow the Crowleys out the door.

Anonymous said...

Anyone know how long George the Greek has been voting Democrat?

JQ LLC said...

The level of psychotic behavior by some of the women described there at "Pam's Place" begs for them to be institutionalized. (by the way, what a re-name, it's like something from a Steinbeck novel). The most interesting and crazy of all, not to lessen the severity of burnings and stabbings, is the woman who went on the streets and threw loose change at cars in a improvisational display of reverse panhandling.

With all the tower pestilence that has sprouted there (and there are a lot of fucking towers) this city, but mostly this pussy beggar mayor couldn't persuade his overlord predatory developer donors to build a fucking hospital? Because there are more mentally ill homeless out there than I have ever seen. More than the late 80's to mid 90's when I started commuting and working in the city. These people need medical attention and help.

And if they get violent and assault someone or even obstruct traffic they should be charged and arrested. Especially the latter, it's pretty hypocritical and fucking unfair that the city deploys hundreds of cops to arrest people for obstructing traffic for peaceful assembly and protest yet some lunatic jumps in front of cars and they let her go to menace other commuters for another day.

https://impunitycity.wordpress.com/

And to Jimmy Van Wanker, Fuck you you pandering runt. And to Cindy Nix, give it up. Nobody wants to put another celebrity in political office. Trump has ruined it for everybody. (Well, except for WWE world and tag team champion Kane)

Anonymous said...

The woman in the street was not committing a crime,but a violation. Cops have to witness a violation to take action.

TommyR said...

Pam's gonna be in a Jam

Anonymous said...

Matt Wallace for City Council!

Anonymous said...

>Trump has ruined it for everybody. (Well, except for WWE world and tag team champion Kane)

Please tell me he's ran for and won office somewhere.

Anonymous said...

Wow, George, a strongly worded letter and a meeting with a councilman's chief of staff...that will solve the problem.

Anonymous said...

Please! Van Bramer lives in crappy "workers' housing" no matter if it's landmarked!
Without the lush mature trees, Sunnyside Gardens ....as originally built...,looks like a mining village in Wales.

JQ LLC said...

"Please tell me he's ran for and won office somewhere."

The Big Red Machine is mayor of Knox City in Tennessee. He's a registered Republican.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-pol-kane-wwe-mayor-knox-20180802-story.html

Anonymous said...

>The Big Red Machine is mayor of Knox City in Tennessee. He's a registered Republican.

Sweet.

Unknown said...

Worse place ever

Anonymous said...

Hell. None stop hell.

Anonymous said...

This is a horrible place to live. There's absolutely no de-escalation programs in place at this shelter, unprofessional workers,black mold, and a lot of confidentiality violations. Though all are not mentally ill that live there, there complaints and cried also go unheard by staff and DHS. The DHS, and the state investigates the condition and totally ignore the conditions. The conditions are deplorable at pam's place. Old rugs with hoards mildew. 200 women sharing one microwave, causes fights. Women that loses there bed for whatever reason has to stay in a eating room with only chairs until another bed is given to them. Slot of women are also angry because of the condition there that they are face to deal with. To resolve this we need the people responsible for running these shelters inside and out, to be held accountable. These are poor conditions for both shelter clients and neighborhood.

Anonymous said...

Pam's Place hosts the most toxic and oppressive staff members. They are disrespectful with a ghetto mentality and combative too. Only a very few will work to resolve issues in an unbiased manner. Some staff solicit sexual favors from the women and so they display favoritism to the ones they're involved with as well as to the notorious trouble makers and drug users. The facility is run by the very unprofessional Acacia network and they are known for violating HIPPA laws. Everyone has access to clients' confidential information. Complaints made about staff to higher ups are pretty much laughed at and most times there are retaliations. Clients are often told that they will be removed to other facilities as a threat as Pam's is considered to be one of the best shelters, whenever they make complaints or speak up about unfairness or request their packed up property which is often packed up and placed in storage while women are at work during curfew hours and while they have a late/work pass. Nothing is done about drug usage in the rooms. There are constant fights and the aggressor or the party who gets the upper hand in a fight is usually the one who gets off the hook. Some staff members display amusement whenever there are confrontations and sometimes gather around watching clients go at it. They don't want to leave their seats to resolve issues. They are most concerned with packing the contents of clients' lockers. They seem to think that the homeless are beneath them. They mostly do a deep cleaning when city inspections are due. The curtains are filthy and not able to be removed. The carpets are filthy and moldy and trigger serious allergic reactions. The mentally sick women create hazardous health conditions in the rooms and they're a menace in the neighborhood. Staff members lack respect and they need training or better yet, new professional staff members who are trained are needed to run the facility to do a thorough job

Anonymous said...

The staff like to call the cops and have clients arrested or call ems and have them hospitalized for mental health reasons for simply talking about unfair matters and other trivial matters that staff should be able to easily resolve. They are spiteful horrible tyrants and very unprofessional

Anonymous said...

What's interesting is that, these clients are mentally ill. And they perceive things differently and through the lenses of their metal affliction. The staff although at times unprofessional are still humans. What needs to be addressed is our mental health programs as a country. Drug use is not illegal and if the clients made the rules it would be bedlam.