Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Banks stands by bait & switch and shitty service provider


From PIX11:

Less than 24 hours after Maspeth residents watched Department of Homeless Services officials covertly move homeless males into the Holiday Inn Express in Maspeth, Queens, the commissioner for the agency decided to hold a news conference.

"There are 6,000 New Yorkers currently in commercial hotel rooms that I have been rented on an individualized basis," said Steven Banks at City Hall.

Approximately 30 of those New Yorkers, all working males, are now being housed at the property with Banks admitting his agency did not notify the community until after the men were checked into the hotel --- besides regular paying guests, "We did provide notice yesterday as soon as we went into those rooms."

State senator Tony Avella, the chair of a task force in Albany that focuses on the homeless says Commissioner Banks is manipulating the system calling the move a "bait and switch" in an interview with PIX11 News.

When PIX11 asked Commissioner Banks on Tuesday if he had any concerns about the city doing business with Patel considering his past? Banks offered the following, "We work with Acacia which is a reputable non-for-profit. They identified this site as a site in which services could be provided."

When pushed about DHS providing the contract with Acasia? Banks said, "We are going to keep doing business with Acacia which is a very reputable non-for-profit."

City data we examined on the Mayor's Office of Operations site, showed that in the August shelter scorecard, Acacia had more than 3,700 open violations.

13 comments:

(sarc) said...

Another useless government bureaucrat that is "just following orders"...

Anonymous said...

I can't wait to hear the excuses from Banks and the Boy Mayor when one of these "working homeless" commit a crime in the neighborhood.

No doubt they will blame the victims so as to protect their vindictive actions.

Anonymous said...

Hating homeless because their a Loyal voting block
Where are they registered to vote would be a good question since election is 6 weeks away

Anonymous said...

FROM CITY GOVERNMENT TO PRIVATE BANKS, EVERYONE IS COMPLICIT IN THIS SCHEME. THIS IS NOT A DEMOCRACY !!

Anonymous said...

We're going about this all wrong. We need to stop the Right to Shelter law in New York. The problem is that we can't figure out how to organize and work together. We will never win this fight unless we stop this at the root of the problem.

Anonymous said...

If the numbers are correct the city is spending $160 per night for each of the 30 rooms in the Maspeth Motel.

Let's do the math:
30 rooms at $160 a night seven nights a week equals $33,600.
$33,600 per week for 52 weeks means the city is paying $1,747,200 per annum to house 30 homeless men in Maspeth. And the numbers will be going up with addition of more homeless men.

Incredible!

Anonymous said...

At the expense of taxpayers.
Can not wait to vote this clown out.
Yet he still believes he will get back in?
Really?
We shall see in November 2017.

Anonymous said...

$1,747,200 per annum works out to $58,240 per year per homeless man.
Does cable TV, room and maid service get added in or is that included?
How about the mini-bar and pay-per-view porn?

Anonymous said...

why do you need security for working males??
i really want to know how many are working and how many are not.
If you tell me they are working than they will not be panhandling and roaming around. They are working. They come home and right inside their hotel room after they look for dinner.
I think I smell another lie here. You just tell the news and community working homeless males.
I looks better. Why the security I ask?
Also where are those who you said are from Maspeth?

Anonymous said...

"i really want to know how many are working and how many are not."

Sure they are working. They are either in a work release program or some of those guys dressed in orange on the highways working off presumably soft prison time by picking up trash.

Instead of Riker's Island time they are doing Maspeth time.

Anonymous said...

"...the city is paying $1,747,200 per annum to house 30 homeless men in Maspeth."

For that kind of cash I'm surprised Gina Argento-Ciafone doesn't refurbish/rehab some warehouse space at the Knockdown Center and turn it into a homeless shelter.

Hell, her chooch husband John Ciafone could even erect a fancy awning over the entrance and charge the city more than $160 a night.

One could even hold a contest to name the skell zone.

Anonymous said...

This looks like a job for Preet!

Anonymous said...

This is not new. The city was paying close to $3K a month to house homeless families in flea infested hotels, back in the 80's. Prior to going to Washington to head H.U.D.,,
Andrew Cuomo helped to put together an organization called H.E.L.P.
That organization will not tolerate the nonsense that a lot of "The Work
The System"can get away with today because they have rights.They have free legal representation so watch your mouth or you may end up homeless.