Friday, October 28, 2016

What it's like to live in de Blasio's homeless hotels


From PIX11:

For much of this year, PIX11 has been focusing on Department of Homeless Services Commissioner Steven Banks' increasing reliance on commercial hotels, but on Wednesday, we spoke to a homeless mother who has the experience to talk about the subject – she's already been in three this year.

Things were so bad in some of those hotels, the DHS transferred her to a hotel in the Belmont section of the Bronx, where the conditions we found are not much better.

Aventura Lopez has been languishing in the New York City homeless hotel shelter system. She has stayed in three so far since January of this year.

Based on what she told PIX11, her situation has gone from bad to worse. In her words, "miserable."

Lopez credits the Department of Homeless Services led by embattled Commissioner Banks for her misfortune. She blames them for putting her and her two daughters into a shelter on Crotona Avenue with no heat.

These chilly conditions are an example of what many homeless shelter residents say they've been living with for months. In other words, simply taking homeless families off the streets in order to fulfill their legal obligation to house them but providing questionable or in some cases absolutely zero social services to get out of the shelter system and back on their feet.

Lopez said she's been contacted "zero" times by the city to help her find a job.

"Not at all," Lopez said. "The case work is there but as far as helping, no. No housing specialist, nothing."


The comptroller released a report detailing the poor conditions in these shelters.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Out of sight of Manhattan's tourist corridor.
Out of mind.
That's the way mayor Duh Blaz "solves" the "unsightly" homeless problem.
Farm them out to the outer boroughs with no consideration of conditions they must endure.

JQ LLC said...

This is scandalous and Dickensian. That woman is very courageous for coming forward. That is no way to live. It's equivalent to a debtor's prison. Especially being under scrutiny by security contractors, possibly types with criminal records.

Warehousing the homeless? The city is practically storing them as you would furniture. Instead of affordable apartments, they are living in compartments. They are better off living in a box at a Moishe's. And it would probably be warmer and less costly for taxpayers.

But that would mean more money set aside for affordable luxury tower development.

Anonymous said...

You call this quality? Children living in such conditions and with no help just shuffled along from hotel to hotel.
More stories will come out about poor living conditions in these hotels and all the DHS will say we have to investigate it. Will they fix it? No probably just move them to another place.
I hope solutions come soon.

Anonymous said...

To Aja Worthy-Davis...what do you call this? Is this right for a family to be in these kind of conditions? Children are there in that kind of environment?
Stop using the race card. It's falling on deaf ears and start looking after the people being warehoused in these kinds of conditions.
You and your bosses can do better for these individuals.

Anonymous said...

Their aim s not to help people become independent. They merely want to expand their fiefdom of dependent serfs

georgetheatheist said...

How much does she pay per month for her phone plan? And WHERE does the money come from?

Anonymous said...

"Their aim s not to help people become independent. They merely want to expand their fiefdom of dependent serfs"

And their votes!!!

Anonymous said...

All they are doing is giving them a room and that is what DHS is legally to do provide shelter but they claim quality where it is reported not so. Morally they should be ashamed of themselves with conditions like that.
Moving them around and not helping them is also wrong.
Its no Holiday staying at a Holiday Inn Express and where is the Comfort at the Comfort Inn and where is the quality the DHS states these provisions are?

Anonymous said...

Keep publilcly shaming and embarrassing this corrupt, incompetent, empowered idiot (and his frightfully daft administration, all of whom are an embarrassment to PRIMATES)!

As the great Saul Alinsky maintains in his 1960s book, ❝The Rules For Radicals,❞ that when all else fails, resort to public shaming——the most effective tactic of them all, that actually works to challenge authority.

❝It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.❞ ——Voltaire

❝Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.❞ ——Voltaire

❝It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.❞ ——Voltaire

Finally, when injustice becomes law—then resistance becomes duty!


In fact, Saul Alinsky simplified Vladimir Lenin's original scheme for world conquest by communism, under Russian rule. Stalin described his subordinates as ❝Useful Idiots.❞

The Useful Idiots have destroyed every nation in which they have allowed seizure of power and control. It is presently happening at an alarming rate in the U.S.—and, only getting worse by the hour!

Anonymous said...

Look at the peeling paint and large bubble in ceiling from a water leak. Also the blistering where wall meets ceiling. These conditions usually are a precursor to mildew and vermin infestation if not there already. Is it me or does the window look open at the bottom? Is she trying to game the interview? I had a tenant who had windows open 2 inches at the top and she called up saying there was no heat. And in the summer she kept the bottom windows closed!

Anonymous said...

Not the greatest of conditions and window could be broken.
We all had those type of tenants who did things but in this case how they are moved around someone from DHS should check it out. Fix the window and cracks in the wall.
Do not think she was "gaming" the interview."
There are real problems in these shelters and should be addressed

Anonymous said...

Anyone notice more people begging on the highway exits?? Thanks mayor!!!