Ozone Park protests homeless shelter for mentally ill men

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.”

What goes on near Creedmoor

From Crains:

Fully 70% of Creedmoor patients are now managed by the various nonprofit organizations operating on the Creedmoor grounds. These nonprofits have been absent from each of the three Creedmoor meetings, although their presence had been requested. They shield themselves from accountability, and tout HIPAA patient confidentiality laws to keep neighboring communities in the dark.

Surprisingly, there is no requirement that wandering patients take their daily medications and there is no behavioral code of conduct protocol conveyed to them. The general lack of accountability by the nonprofits is stunning. Their managers enter the facility gates in the morning and leave at night, rarely stepping foot outside of Creedmoor to see what their patients have wrought on nearby communities.

The aggressive panhandling is rampant. Unsuspecting pedestrians are accosted daily and disheveled individuals often follow them into a Dunkin’ Donuts or wait outside an ATM to demand money. Recently, a woman sitting at McDonald’s in Queens Village was assaulted by a Creedmoor resident. A middle-aged worker in Creedmoor was sucker-punched by a patient as she bent down to pick up a food tray. She is now recuperating with 3 steel rods in her neck.

Public defecation, substance abuse and other quality-of-life infractions are now commonplace in residential communities around Creedmoor. Unfortunately, the police are discouraged from enforcing certain laws now that Mayor Bill de Blasio and the City Council have decriminalized some low-level infractions. Creedmoor officials acknowledge that well-meaning individuals should neither give money nor endure menacing shakedowns by patients who live rent-free, receive three meals per day including snacks, plus a weekly monetary stipend paid in part by the very same individuals that are being accosted daily.

Civic leaders who sought to identify why these problems have dramatically worsened over the past year were repeatedly told by Creedmoor administrators that nothing has changed. But recently, writer and former City Council candidate Dennis Saffran, who investigated Creedmoor for another story, revealed some interesting facts. It turns out that much has changed. Governor Andrew Cuomo prioritized deinstitutionalizing the mentally ill and moving them out of wards and into so-called “transitional housing.” To accomplish this, OMH simply rebranded its wards as “transitional housing” and redesignated inpatients as “outpatients” although their living arrangements never changed.

What happens when a shelter opens in an area

From LIC Post:

The Commanding Officer of the 114 Precinct has called on the community board for help in combating crime at a women’s homeless shelter in Long Island City, following two violent incidents that broke out at the shelter last week.

Captain Peter Fortune addressed Community Board 1 at its monthly meeting Tuesday and asked the Board to reach out to the City regarding the women’s shelter in the former Verve Hotel, located at 40-03 29th Street.

Fortune informed the Board of two incidents where residents of the shelter had to be arrested, with one resident assaulting police officers.

The first incident occurred on Feb. 11, where police responded to a dispute between two roommates. As police arrived, one roommate struck the other in the head with a metal object, Fortune said.

The suspect was arrested and taken to Cornell Hospital’s psychiatric center for evaluation. Upon arrival, as the suspect was being taken out of the ambulance, she assaulted an officer.

“She head butted the officer,” Fortune said. “That officer has been out with injuries.”

While in the hospital, the suspect struck an officer numerous times with a metal IV pole and kicked him. That officer has needed treatment as well.

Then on Feb. 12, a resident refused to go through the shelter’s metal detectors and began to act aggressively, Fortune said. She broke the metal detectors and then began throwing chairs and bottles around the lobby.

She was arrested and brought to Cornell Hospital for a psychiatric exam, Fortune said.

Fortune said he subsequently spoke to the shelter contractor, the Acacia Network, and they were not aware of these incidents or arrests.

He added that the Precinct has received complaints from neighboring business owners, primarily bodega owners, who say residents from the shelter harass them.

Weeping Beech Park now homeless free

From the Times Ledger:

Elderly residents are frequenting Weeping Beech Park in Flushing again after the nearby Bowne House expressed concerns about homeless people living in the park as well as criminal activities.

An officer on the board of directors of the Bowne House Historical Society had called on the city Parks Department and other city agencies to address the homeless encampment and the drinking and drug activities that have been taking place in the park, located at 143-20 37th Ave., throughout the last year.

The officer said she has not seen homeless people in the park and credited the Parks Department with cleaning up the grounds.

But she said that the park still has an unpleasant odor. She also said that there is still a drinking problem during the daytime, although the problem has somewhat lessened with the gates being locked at 9 p.m.

When a reporter visited the park last week, there were about 31 people in the park, mostly elderly individuals sitting on benches chatting and a group of Asian men playing chess. There were three individuals who appeared to be mentally ill.

DeBlasio homeless plan doesn't actually house anyone

From Capital New York:

The lead up to the “unprecedented” announcement Mayor Bill de Blasio would make yesterday was quite clear, at least according to two daily newspapers: the Democratic mayor had a plan to tackle homelessness.

Both the New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Mr. de Blasio’s $22 million initiative would specifically aid the rising number of homeless people.

“On Thursday, Mayor Bill de Blasio is set to appear with his wife, Chirlane McCray, to announce a $22 million mental health initiative that his administration says will aid the homeless,” the Times reported.

But reporters were surprised to learn on Thursday that the $22 million plan was not specifically about the homeless problem. Mr. de Blasio and a cadre of city officials insisted at a City Hall media roundtable that the initiative would be for helping a small subset of the general population: violent mentally ill people who need treatment. Whether they have a roof over their heads or not wasn’t the point, Mr. de Blasio said.

“Some in the media have tried to portray this as about homeless first and foremost. No, it is about people who have mental health challenges and are prone to violence,” Mr. de Blasio said. “They are a concern to all of us, whether they live in an apartment building, a private home, a shelter, or on the street.”

It was an odd statement coming off the heels of two preview stories which reported Mr. de Blasio clearly wanted to address homelessness, first and foremost. “Mayor Plans New Homeless Initiative,” read a Journal headline from Wednesday. “De Blasio, Facing Criticism, Is Taking On Homelessness With $22 Million Initiative,” blared a Times headline on the same day.

So what happened? It’s not really clear. A de Blasio spokeswoman did not immediately return a request for comment for this story. The announcement of the mental health initiative, which will send experts to New York City’s homeless shelters and to other places to treat mentally ill people who exhibit violent behavior, was delayed a day. The original plan had been to roll out the initiative on Wednesday.

Fun times at Creedmoor

"I have something for your Queens Crap website: Today, January 13, 2015, around 3:55pm, I was walking on Winchester Avenue between Union Turnpike and Hillside Avenue, and a woman walked by me STARK NAKED. It must have been like 20 degrees outside, and she didn't have any panties, bra, shoes or socks on. NOTHING AT ALL. Not even jewelry.

I went into the Creedmoor complex to tell someone. I went into building # 73, there was a receptionist and a man there in a small reception area. I told the woman there. She asked me is the woman I saw dark skinned? I said yes, but not too much. Is she a bit chunky? Yes, and just a little taller than me. Then the receptionist said, oh that must be "CeCe".

Apparently they knew who the woman was and this woman has done this before. I couldn't believe it. What a sight. A flabby 30 or 40 year old woman stark naked in the cold walking down the street. Don't know where she was going. Cars were stopping and looking. Later on, I went back into building 73 and asked them what happened, they said the cops and the firemen all showed up to corral her.

I'm writing to you because I live near that Creedmoor area, and last year an inmate from Rikers Island escaped around there. To enter that complex, there's a small opening to enter, on Winchester close to Union Tpke and there's a traffic light there. If you go in, there's a guard booth BUT there is NEVER EVER any guard there. There really should be!! This area is really scary. I witnessed something really, really weird there today, the naked lady."

Marie

Something the governor should do right now

From the Huffington Post:

Even after a reportedly mentally ill ex-prisoner, Ismaaiyl Brinkley shot New York City Police Department officers, Liu Wenjin and Raphael Ramos, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo is refusing to sign a bill (S7818) that passed both houses and is on his desk right now.

The "Prisoners Mental Health Discharge Planning Bill" would require prison officials to make sure prisoners with mental illness who are being released are

• given a discharge plan,
• an appointment with a community program,
• and enough medications to last until the appointment.
• It also adds parole officials to the list of people who can refer someone with a mental illness to a hospital for evaluation.

Media reports say Ismaaiyl Brinsley who shot officers Liu Wenjin and Raphael Ramos was reported by his mom to be mentally ill, and reported himself to have been previously institutionalized. He was also previously incarcerated. While Brinsley was not a New York resident, this bill would help prevent violence by similarly situated people who do leave a New York prison. Cuomo should sign it today.

The bill was sponsored Senator Catharine Young and Assemblyman Danny O'Donnell. Supporters include Mental Illness Policy Org, the NYS Association of Chiefs of Police and the National Alliance on Mental Illness of NYS

We also note that Mayor DeBlasio's Task Force on Mentally Ill at Riker's Island Jail failed to include expansion of Kendra's Law in their recommendations. Kendra's Law reduces homelessness, arrest, violence and incarceration by mentally ill ex-prisoners by keeping them in mandated and monitored community treatment.

Pathways to hell

From the Daily News:

Since 2010, more than 1,300 eviction notices have gone out because Pathways [to Housing] — which serves 700 mentally ill clients — stopped paying rent for months at a time. Pathways’ contract with the state was recently canceled, and the state attorney general is now investigating where all that taxpayer money went.

In fact, Pathway clients have good reason to fear getting the knock.

The state Office of Mental Health, Pathways’ main source of funding, said on Friday that Pathways admits 52 clients have actually been evicted since 2010. Legal Aid Society lawyers trying to fight the evictions say 24 of those evictions have occurred since Jan. 1, 2013.

So I guess we'll need more homeless shelters then?

Why was he on the streets in the first place?

From DNA Info:

A convicted killer who escaped from a psychiatric hospital in January by swapping clothes with a friend was busted again carrying a gun near a rival gang's turf, according to a source and the district attorney's office.

Raymond Morillo, 33, was sitting in a car with overly-tinted windows and a license plate cover, on Junction Boulevard and 57th Avenue on July 20 at around 3:15 a.m., according to the district attorney's office.

Officers spotted a .44-caliber revolver, loaded with five rounds of ammunition, on the floor of the passenger side of the car and arrested him, police said.

Morillo had previously been charged with criminal impersonation for fleeing the hospital, but he was released without bail. The case was also set to be dismissed in November.

The area where he was arrested is popular with the Trinitario gang, according to a source.

Morillo — who was convicted in 1999 for manslaughter and assault in another gang attack — is affiliated with La Familia, a rival gang in Corona, the source said.

Another inmate escapes from Creedmoor

From the Daily News:

Cops are searching for a mental patient who escaped from a Queens psychiatric facility on Tuesday.

Clifford Brown, 27, made his mad dash for freedom when he vaulted over chain-link fence on the south side of the Creedmoor Psychiatric Facility on Winchester Blvd. in Queens Village, cops said.

Brown - who is mentally challenged and also suffers from schizophrenia - was arrested by cops on gun charges in 2003, police said.

He’s described as five-foot-eight, 120 pounds with brown eyes, black hair, thin build, and has a scar on the right wrist. He was last seen wearing a white shirt, tan slacks, and a gray hat.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).

This is comforting: Prisoner walks right out of Creedmoor

From the NY Post:

A killer who had been locked up for for the past 15 years for manslaughter, escaped from a psychiatric center in Queens by swapping clothes with a friend Tuesday, cops said.

Raymond Morillo, 33, was imprisoned for manslaughter in 1999, prison records show. In December he was moved from prison to the Creedmor Psychiatric Facility in Rosedale, according to police.

At about 11:25 a.m. Tuesday, Morillo was visited by a friend, with whom he traded a black baseball cap, white sneakers and tan pants. The new get up allowed him to exit the building, cops said.

The friend also managed to leave the building, police said.

UPDATE 1/31/2014: We can relax. He was caught in Tennessee.

DOH wants information about mental patients

From the NY Post:

The city Department of Health wants hospitals to hand over information on patients admitted for a first psychotic episode, as part of a new initiative aimed at delivering care to mentally ill people who might endanger themselves and others.

City hospitals may soon be required to report data on patients ages 18 to 30 to the DOH within 24 hours of their admission.

The city insists the reported information — name, age, phone, gender, admission date, diagnosis and insurance type — will be kept confidential and held for only 30 days.

During that period, the DOH will reach out and ask patients to participate in a “linkage to care” program. If they agree, their data will be retained to help the DOH remain in contact and make sure they receive “specialized, ongoing care for their illness” at area mental-health clinics, the agency said.

Oliver Pan conveniently lost his mind

From the NY Post:

The former fund-raiser charged with scheming to funnel illegal campaign contributions to embattled city Comptroller John Liu has been sent to the nuthouse, further delaying his trial.

Xing Wu “Oliver” Pan is “involuntarily committed in connection with a mental-health condition” and undergoing treatment, Manhattan federal Judge Richard Sullivan said in court today.

Sullivan put off Pan’s trial, which was supposed to be under way already, until April 15 — unless Pan is fit before then.

Sources have told The Post that Pan was locked up Friday over fears he was suicidal.

Defense lawyer Irwin Rochman said he would be ready for trial within a few day of Pan’s release.

Cuomo's regs may backfire on mentally ill

From the NY Post:

The city’s population of mentally deranged street people may explode because of new regulations signed by Gov. Cuomo last week that forbid privately run adult homes from accepting new residents, advocates warned.

“Hospitals can’t discharge to us,” said Jeffrey Edelman, who runs adult homes in Queens and The Bronx. “Within a week, the hospitals will be starting to get backed up, and they are going to have big problems.”

The change is part of the state’s efforts to comply with a federal court ruling that found institutionalizing the mentally ill in adult homes wrongly segregates them.

An estimated 4,000 to 6,000 mentally ill people, the majority in New York City, could be affected.

“My residents need reminders several times a day to take their medications and see their doctors,” Edelman said. “My residents used to be in homeless shelters and went from hospital to hospital.”

Concern over housing for "vulnerable"

From the Times Ledger:

Some civic members are concerned about plans to turn a Queens Hospital Center building into a residence for people with low incomes and chronic conditions, saying they have been told it would house people with mental disabilities and HIV/AIDS.

“There’s a lot of questions about safety,” said Kevin Forrestal, a member of Community Board 8.

Queens Hospital Center recently made a presentation to CB 8 about the project, Forrestal said. Board members are worried because the residence, which would be at the vacant “T Building” on the Queens Hospital Campus, is close to two schools, he said.

The T Building, on Parsons Boulevard between 82nd Drive and Goethals Avenue, is across the street from St. Nicholas of Tolentine Elementary School and around the corner from Queens Gateway to Health Sciences High School.

Though the building would have round-the-clock front desk coverage and security cameras both inside and outside the building, Forrestal said he was not as worried about security on the home’s grounds as he was about what might go on out in the general community.

The plan for the residence, which is still in the preliminary stages, envisions the T Building as 251 units of permanent housing. It would be operated by Comunilife, a city-based nonprofit that provides health and housing services to low-income and vulnerable individuals.

Didn't the former St. Joseph's Hospital down the street become something similar?

Protecting the public from the mentally ill

From the Daily News:

There’s a drive on in Albany for legislation that would better protect New Yorkers from dangerously disturbed people who wreak bloody mayhem while off their psychiatric medications.

Prompted by the death of Sunando Sen, who was hurled last month in front of a subway train, state Senate Republicans are pushing to close loopholes in Kendra’s Law, a statute that empowers authorities to compel sick people to take the drugs necessary to keep them nonviolent, and to commit them to psychiatric facilities if they refuse.

Sen was pushed by a deranged woman with a history of violent outbursts — and of refusing to take her meds. The episode was a high-profile example of the deaths and injuries that similarly ill people inflict regularly on themselves or others.

Named in memory of Kendra Webdale, who was pushed off a subway platform by a deranged man in 1999, the law is a well-documented success that has protected the public while helping to keep mental patients out of hospitals and out of prisons. But the law also has well-documented flaws that must be addressed.

Under Conference Leader Dean Skelos, Republicans have gotten behind a bill sponsored by two upstaters, Republican Sen. Cathy Young and Democratic Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther.

The measure would extend the maximum term of treatment orders to one year from six months; require prisons, jails and mental hospitals to consider seeking treatment orders for mentally ill prisoners before releasing them to the streets, and stop patients from ducking supervision by moving between counties.

Unfortunately, Gov. Cuomo failed to include Kendra’s Law reform in his State of the State agenda. Even more unfortunately, Assembly Democrats have long been cool to the legislation. Now, though, while Sen’s death is still vivid in memory, all must act to enhance safety for the public and for the ill.

Democrats have their own bill to address the issue, which failed to make it out of an Assembly committee last year.

More mentally ill to roam the streets

From the NY Post:

Here’s some scary news: The Cuomo administration is preparing to shove thousands of mentally ill New Yorkers out of supervised settings — where they can be forced to take their medication — into far less restrictive, far more dangerous “community housing.”

This, despite two recent cases of people being fatally shoved from subway platforms — both allegedly by crazy people.

Albany, under pressure from the Obama administration, recently ordered psychiatric facilities not to place any discharged patients in adult homes, where staff can ensure they take their meds.

Instead, they’ll be placed in “community housing,” without full-time supervision.

This is part of the state’s plan to essentially empty adult homes into community-based “supportive” apartments, leaving up to 6,000 people — including those with schizophrenia — to live on their own, with minimal supervision.

Granted, the move isn’t entirely voluntary: The Obama administration has made clear in numerous states — including New York — that it wants to shut adult homes entirely, saying they illegally segregate the mentally ill. It’s prepared to sue to make that happen.

And if Albany doesn’t move, it could find itself back in front of none other than the imperious federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis, who in 2011 effectively ordered the immediate dismantling of the adult-home system — summarily rejecting every effort by Albany to reach a compromise.

Mentally ill defendants to get treatment

From CBS:

The city is making a new effort to channel mentally ill people who get arrested into treatment instead of jail, if they don’t need to be there, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Sunday.

Citing statistics showing that people with mental health problems tend to spend extended time behind bars for lack of bail money, officials said they aimed to do better at assessing defendants’ psychiatric needs and meeting them in the least restrictive setting that’s appropriate.

“If more New Yorkers who need mental health care and community support can be helped to get their lives on track when they’ve run afoul of the law, we will all be better off,” Bloomberg said in a statement after announcing the initiative on his weekly radio show. “No one needs to be reminded anymore of just how important it is to get this group of people the care they need.”

Courts and jails in New York and around the country have grappled for years with how to handle growing numbers of mentally ill defendants. The federal Bureau of Justice Statistics estimated in 2006 that more than 1.2 million adults - or more than half of all inmates - were in state and federal prisons and local jails.

In New York City, some 36 percent of jail inmates have some level of mental illness, compared with less than 25 percent in 2005, officials said. And the average mentally ill inmate is behind bars for about twice as long as are other inmates facing comparable charges and bail, as those with psychiatric problems tend to have less ability to post bail, officials said.

Meanwhile, the city spends about three times as much supervising and caring for a seriously mentally ill inmate as it costs to house an inmate without psychiatric problems, officials said.

The new initiative will start next year and set out to work with 3,000 people annually, Bloomberg said.

Manhattan hospitals expanding, Queens hospitals providing housing

From the NY Observer:

The city’s aging population, a drive for state-of-the-art facilities and strong hiring across the health care industry prompted unprecedented growth in leasing activity in the health care sector across the five boroughs in 2012.

Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Mt. Sinai, Montefiore Hospital and Inventa Health were among the dozens of hospitals and medical companies to announce bold new initiatives to expand their footprints in the city in 2012, and those developments are only a sign of what’s to come, brokers and analysts predict.

From the Queens Courier:

Civic groups in Hillcrest are worried that a proposed mixed housing unit set to lodge individuals with chronic conditions will draw a “questionable population” next door.

Queens Hospital Center (QHC) is in talks with Comunilife, a nonprofit human services agency, to develop a deteriorated 10-story building on the hospital’s campus into 251 units of affordable, permanent supportive housing for individuals with chronic physical and mental health conditions, The Courier has learned.

Residency at the 82-68 164th Street site in Jamaica, called the “T-Building,” would be coupled with access to supportive health care services, including case workers, a hospital executive said. Apartment preference would be given to patients of Queens and Elmhurst Hospital Centers suffering from ailments including diabetes and chronic heart failure.

QHC officials said it was too early to specify those “special needs,” but local civic associations said they expect masses of homeless people, the mentally ill, and individuals with HIV or AIDS, based on Comunilife’s mission statement to help that particular population.

“The overwhelming feeling is of great concern, if not rejection, of any consideration of this type of facility,” said Kevin Forrestal, president of the Hillcrest Estates Civic Association and area chair of Community Board 8. “We’re talking about a rather large number of people, hundreds, who are at risk, with mental issues.”

Forrestal said the hesitation stems from a “fear of crime or other offenses” the residents could potentially commit.

“Presumably, of most folks who have HIV, many, if not most, have had a history of drug abuse,” he said.