Sunday, October 9, 2016

DHS pulls a fast one on Riverdale residents


From Riverdale Press:

The dozens of homeless men whom the city had promised to relocate from the Van Cortlandt Motel by late September are now gone – only to have been replaced by homeless parents with children, in a reshuffle that prompted an outcry from local residents, politicians and community activists.

Community Board 8 voted unanimously on Sept. 29 to approve a resolution demanding the resignation of city officials it blamed for a “material misrepresentations of facts” – the head of New York’s Department of Homeless Services, Steven Banks, and his deputy Matthew Borden. Several speakers at the meeting accused the officials of having “lied.” The resolution also called for an investigation and for an end to the motel’s use as a homeless shelter.

City officials denied having lied and argued that the arrival of homeless families was prompted by the city’s attempt to find temporary housing for an influx of homeless New Yorkers this summer.

The Van Cortlandt Motel has long been known as a place for assignations and suspected drug use, and linked to violent crimes and theft. It also sits next door to a home for people with mental health problems, the Riverdale Manor, and is just across Broadway from Van Cortlandt Park.

But the main focus of the outrage at the board meeting was the city’s apparent failure to notify the community about placing homeless families at the motel – a charge of surreptitiousness that officials tried to refute, but with little apparent success.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Forget the Curly shuffle we have the Banks shuffle. Shuffling the homeless from hotel to hotel. Never once thinking about the community and telling us we all have to shoulder this burden. We already are dealing with this burden
with increasing taxes, healthcare costs and much more. How much more can we take? Why should we bear the burden of out of state people and illegals? Why can't other states take care of of their own and maybe it's time for them to share in this burden.

Anonymous said...

Air B and B ?.....Banks and Borden,

Anonymous said...

Bring me the head of Steven Banks.

Anonymous said...

The Caribbean Deli is going to be making a killing with all those food stamp and prepared food purchases.

Anonymous said...

They're being shuttled in and out every day. Remember the Dasani story in the NY Times? DHS wakes people up at 6am, makes them to back to the intake center. another reason why they shuttle the homeless around these motels is because after 28 to 30 days they can establish residency and can't just be locked out. Am sure that DHS is flouting all illegal eviction laws and just tossing out any one who complains about the bed bugs, roaches, no hot water, dirty sheets, towels.

Anonymous said...

I'm tempted to try and get some of these benefits,do they give any cash?

Anonymous said...

Sneaky DHS will secretly move them in. Watch and see. Deal with it. Carry the burden. Don't say anything. Don't protest.
Just let them roam around. Increase quality of life issues. Crime going up.
What gets me is how the city can justify putting people who lost their homes into a bed bug ridden hotel after hotel? They are not in a five star hotel. The hotel does not exist anymore. It is a run down bug infested place that does not have kitchens and kicks them out at a certain time and makes them come back. You call that home sweet home?

Anonymous said...

>the city’s attempt to find temporary housing for an influx of homeless New Yorkers this summer.
>influx

If they've just moved here this summer, intending to be homeless and live in shelters, how are they "New Yorkers"?