Ozone Park getting f*cked with a shelter for mentally ill homeless men

From the Queens Chronicle:

The Department of Homeless Services will be opening a shelter in Ozone Park this coming winter as part of Mayor de Blasio’s “Turning the Tide on Homelessness on New York City” program.

In an email obtained by the Queens Chronicle, Amanda Nasar of the DHS outlined details of the shelter.

“DHS notified the electeds and [Community Board] ... that we’re opening a new shelter at 85-15 101st Avenue, Ozone Park, for 113 single adult males with mental illness,” said Nasar. “We anticipate this shelter opening in late winter.”

The site for the shelter is the location of the former Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church.

De Blasio’s plan includes creating around 90 new homeless shelters and renovating and expanding 30 existing shelters to combat the closing down of more than 350 “cluster sites.”

They can't live without each other

From the NY Times:

They have no children, no linear career histories, no readily disposable savings. The four men, all heterosexual, approaching 40 and never married, have lived together for 18 years, give or take a revolving guest roommate, cohabitating in spaces like an East Village walk-up, a Chelsea loft and, now, a converted office space in Queens.

Their latest home, which they have nicknamed Fortress Astoria, takes up the second and third floors of a slate gray concrete block building with floor-to-ceiling windows on 31st Street. The setup is ideal for four bachelors. Bedrooms do not share common walls, and there are communal spaces both upstairs (huge television, sofa) and down (kitchen). There is a lovely garden out back tended by Mr. Theerakulstit.

The apartment presents itself as a mix of man-child fantasy and discerning urban sophistication — Peter Pan meets the man cave. Action hero figurines, many still in their boxes, are displayed over the doorways, while film snob DVDs (by directors like Akira Kurosawa or Preston Sturges) line the shelves. There are expensive Mac computers in the bedrooms, and the kitchen holds an impressive array of spices (turmeric, pink peppercorns, cardamom), not one but two mortars and pestles, designer Japanese knives and a seltzer-making machine.

But dinner on a recent night was takeout pizza and garlic knots, served on paper plates. And in one of the downstairs bathrooms, a chopstick serves as a toilet paper holder.

Sociologically, the men represent the apotheosis of two trends in American life. While Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg may be promoting the idea of tiny apartments for singles, the most recent census figures suggest that many people do not want to live alone; they prefer or need the company: The number of roommates in nonfamily households in New York City increased by more than 40 percent between 2000 and 2010.

In NYC, it actually is illegal for more than 3 unrelated people to live together. Whether this makes sense or not, I'll let you decide.

NYC women live longer than men

From the Times Ledger:

New York City men die an average of six years earlier than women, many of them because of what health officials call preventable causes including poor diet, smoking, lack of health care and homicide.

A city Department of Health report said life spans are lengthening for both sexes but that men live to an average of 76 years as compared with 82 for women.

“A number of complex factors contribute to a shorter life expectancy and higher premature death rate for men, including health behavior, the social and physical environment and health-care access and quality,” the report said.

In the 35 to 64 age group, 1 million men, or 46 percent, were overweight and 25 percent were obese, the report said.

“Heart disease is the leading cause of death after age 75 among both men and women,” the report said. “Before that age, however, causes differ greatly by sex.”

“Homicide is by far the most common cause of death for men between 18 and 34, accounting for twice as many deaths as accidents,” the report said.

The Health Department said that while death rates for cancer are comparable among men and women 35 to 64, deaths from heart diseases are twice as common among men.