Toby pushing for kitchens at shelters

From the Times Ledger:

State Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky (D-Flushing) was joined by members of the advocacy group Elmhurst United last week outside the former Pan American hotel, where she announced legislation she recently introduced that would mandate homeless family shelter units to have working kitchens.

The measure, S7181 A, would require family homeless shelters for 10 or more families to have working kitchens within 60 days of the registration of the contract between the operator of the shelter and the city of New York.

Stavisky’s bill is in direct response to the recent and controversial uptick of repurposed hotels being used as homeless shelters. In Stavisky’s district, the city came under fire for turning the former Pan American hotel on Queens Boulevard in Elmhurst into a family shelter without supplying functioning kitchens in each unit.

Samaritan Village can't pay for Pan Am kitchens

From DNA Info:

The shelter provider at the former Pan Am hotel has gotten a six-year contract extension from the city — despite saying it can't build the mandatory kitchens for each unit because it can't get a loan to fund construction.

Samaritan Village Daytop's Boulevard Family Shelter got its extension bid approved by the city's Human Resources Administration on March 17, as well as an additional $10.5 million through the end of June — which includes $4.8 million for rent at the former hotel.

That brings the total contract amount for the shelter to $26,431,554 each year — but still doesn't include the cost of building kitchens in each of the rooms, which last year was part of the mandatory requirement before a contract extension could be approved.

The city said last year that it will pay for the renovations needed to turn the shelter into a Tier 2 facility, and Samaritan Village was required to lay out a timeline for the work.

Samaritan Village has been delayed since it hasn't been able to receive a loan "due to the lack of registration for this work," a letter states.

A Department of Homeless Services official said work on the 216-room hotel's kitchens will begin this July, with 100 units finished by July 2018. The rest will finish by 2019. it was not immediately clear where the money for the kitchen construction would come from in light of the operator's issues with getting a construction loan.