Indicted Mayor gives more millions to nepo non-profit homeless services provider for Glendale shelter

 

 NY Post

The city is planning to shell out $43 million to a politically-connected nonprofit, so it can continue running a notorious Queens homeless shelter that’s been bombarded for years by complaints of residents masturbating in public, using drugs and menacing neighbors, The Post has learned.

The 180-bed shelter for single men at 78-16 Cooper Avenue in Glendale has been the subject of 2,251 911 calls, 677 other emergency calls and 278 on-site arrests since Yonkers-based Westhab began operating it in January 2020 under a $60.1 million contract that expires June 30, according to data compiled by Councilman Robert Holden.

The moderate Queens Democratic fired off a letter to the Department of Homeless Services last week “strongly demand[ing]” it reject plans to extend the nonprofit’s deal through June 2028 and instead “permanently close” the Cooper Avenue Rapid Rehousing Center.

 “The failures at this shelter, compounded by Westhab’s ineptitude, have caused irreparable harm to Glendale and Middle Village residents and to the vulnerable individuals residing in the shelter,” he wrote.

The shelter’s second-floor bathroom has become a “notorious drug den” that Westhab “has taken no meaningful action’ to address, and local businesses claim shelter residents are driving away customers by loitering and aggressively panhandling.

“Children and parents have [also] been subjected to appalling incidents, including shelter clients masturbating in public” a few blocks away at Pinocchio Playground, the councilman wrote.

 

Glendale single men's shelter update

 

Looks like the men's homeless shelter on Cooper Ave. is growing corn. 

It's also growing outside lodging. 

 This is also the first time I ever seen the drive thru gate open. 

 

 

Sneaky Shelter

 
Queens Chronicle

During a Cambria Heights Civic Association Zoom meeting last Thursday, many residents aired their concerns about what will become of a defunct area Rite Aid, located at 222-14 Linden Blvd.

Throughout the online forum, several people said they had heard rumors that the new owner of the former pharmacy’s lot intends to transform the space into a transient shelter and worried that could destroy property values and create safety problems.

Under the city Department of Buildings certificate of occupancy, or CofO, Comments section, it was noted that “the facility shall be operated by a philanthropic or non-profit institution, sponsored by [the Department of Homeless Services] ... This certificate shall expire when the ownership operation and use by an institution or public agency ... ceases. The Class B multiple dwelling classification of this building is lodging house.”

DOB’s job filing data says there are no work permits filed, but the zoning information, scope of work and cost affidavit sections have proposals for a transient lodging house, which would include a community facility, a cafeteria and eight dwelling units for 120 beds. If the proposal were to go through, the project is expected to cost $607,170 in property alterations.

Bryan Block, the president of CHCA, said there were about 60 objections to the proposed project as of April 11.

Some of the objections to converting the space include a lack of egress, the parking layout, the elevation of the lot, the noncombustible rooftop hatch and whether the property was in a flood zone, according to DOB.

“The civic was not notified about this and nothing came to the community board,” said Block, “Yes, there was a rumor going around, but there was nothing filed until a couple weeks ago. So, when we said it was a rumor, it was because we didn’t have anything in writing from about three weeks ago. We don’t go on rumors, we go on what we get from the city and we still haven’t gotten anything from the city.”

The lot is zoned R3-2, which in general denotes residential districts that allow a variety of housing types, including low-rise attached houses, small multifamily apartment houses, and detached and semidetached one- and two-family residences. It is the lowest-density zoning district in which multiple dwellings are permitted in Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island and the Bronx, according to the Department of City Planning.

“The site where the building is located is ... zoned residential, but it has a commercial overlay, which allowed the Rite Aid commercial use there,” said Steven Taylor, a CHCA board member. “The point I’m making is, they have the ability to make this for residential use even though we’ve always looked at it as a commercial use.”

The lot is 20,460 square feet, including the 10,000-square-foot commercial building and 30 parking spots. It is a six- to 11-minute drive from five Long Island Rail Road stations, the E,F, J and Z subway stations and the JFK AirTrain. It was put up for sale on Dec. 12, 2023 and sold for $5 million on Feb. 16, according to several real estate websites.

State Sen. Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans) said seeking an injunction against the DOB to prevent a shelter from being erected in the space could be a possibility.

“I’m going to check with the councilmember if one has not been filed,” Comrie said.

 

Top official for Mayor Adams crashed at hotel shelter housing ex-cons that donated money to his re-election

 

THE CITY 

 

Three contributors to Mayor Eric Adams’ 2025 re-election campaign recounted in interviews in the past month how they — and in two cases their spouses — were reimbursed for a total of more than $10,000 in donations by hotel and construction executives in violation of state law.

The interviews came during a joint investigation by THE CITY, Documented, and The Guardian US into the presence in the mayor’s current campaign of illegal “straw” donations — contributions paid for by undisclosed sources in a way that masks their identity. Suspicions of such donations spurred the indictment by the Manhattan district attorney of a fundraising group involved in Adams’ 2021 race, which has led to two guilty pleas, and are part of an ongoing federal investigation into whether they’ve been used to veil illegal donations from the Turkish government.

A representative of the mayor’s campaign has decried the use of straw donations generally and said that if any were made to Adams 2025, they had eluded a vetting procedure designed to flag illegal gifts. 

Three of the five reimbursements were linked to the owners of a hotel in Fresh Meadows, Queens, where the mayor’s director of Asian Affairs, Winnie Greco, lived for a number of months in late 2022 and the early part of 2023 — even as the site was operating under a city government subcontract as a shelter for formerly incarcerated individuals.

City Hall spokesperson Charles Lutvak said Greco stayed at the hotel “for parts of late 2022 and 2023, as she recovered from a medical procedure” and that she paid for the room out of her own pocket. He didn’t address how much she paid or why, out of all the alternatives, she recuperated at a shelter funded by city dollars.  

City sneakily converts Rego Park hotel into a homeless shelter

 

 

Queens Chronicle

Community Board 6 Chair Heather Beers-Dimitriadis says her board and her community have no issue with carrying their fair share to help with the city’s homeless crunch.

But she did tell the Chronicle that board members were surprised with the speed and lack of communication involved with the Department of Social Services’ decision to open a single men’s homeless shelter at the Wyndham Hotel, located at 61-18 93 St. in Rego Park, as early as March.

Beers-Dimitriadis said the board got the final word during a presentation from the DSS at its Jan. 10 meeting.

“We had been working with DSS on a project to bring family transitional housing to our district,” she told the Chronicle last Friday. “It’s new construction next to the [Rego Park]post office. And we were pleased to see it was coming. We were approached in the fall and told that they were going to be converting the Wyndham Hotel into a single adult male shelter, and basically the letter said, ‘because you don’t have shelters in your community.’ You know, we were sort of surprised, because as far as we were concerned, we thought the transitional housing was sort of us doing our part.”

Board 6, in fact, routinely requests funds for transitional housing on its annual list of priorities for city capital funding.

“And so when we found out this was going to be moving in the first quarter of 2024 — which could be potentially March, it might lead into April — I mean, we had very little time to respond, so we have been sort of scrambling to learn as much as we can.”

The shelter will be run by Community Housing Innovations, which Beers-Dimitriadis said is new to Queens but does operate in surrounding counties.

The DSS and the Department of Homeless Services did not pick up their phones for multiple calls last week, and the phone system did not accept messages. The DSS also had not responded to an email sent through its website to Commissioner Molly Park as of Sunday afternoon.

Councilman Jim Gennaro (D-Fresh Meadows), who inherited the area in the new redistricting after Board 6 was notified last fall, said in an email that he has been getting up to speed.

“We were not notified about this shelter until after the district lines moved in the new year,” he said. “In spite of that, my office has hit the ground running, and has already scheduled a meeting with the Dept. of Social Services to learn everything there is to know about the shelter and the shelter operator. I am committed to working with DSS and the community to ensure that, if this shelter needs to happens, it rolls out correctly and with full transparency.”

Beers-Dimitriadis said there are concerns that it is effectively across Queens Boulevard from the transitional housing project; literally across the street from the Lost Battalion Hall Community Center, which is undergoing massive renovations; and within walking district of PS 206, the Horace Harding School.

 Was the Maspeth protests against hotel shelter conversions that long ago?

 

NYPD, DHS and homeless service provider cover up overdose death at Glendale warehouse shelter

 

QNS

Glendale residents who live only blocks away from the men’s shelter on Cooper Avenue are well-informed on the recurring issues emanating from shelter inhabitants.

A local business owner who spoke with QNS, who wished not to be identified, said although they’ve been fortunate enough not to have any problems with the shelter occupants, locals continue to complain about overall safety and trespassing on private property.

Residents who spoke with QNS emphasized more concerns over shelter residents seen walking into their backyards, asking for money and loitering in front of storefronts.

The recent death of a 25-year-old man inside the Cooper Rapid Rehousing Center, located at 78-16 Cooper Ave. in Glendale, amplified concerns from residents and Councilman Robert Holden, who is continuing to fight against the housing facility.

On Wednesday, Aug. 16, officers from the 104th Precinct responded to a 911 call of an unconscious person inside the Cooper Avenue shelter. When officers arrived, they were told a 25-year-old man was found unconscious and unresponsive. EMS responded and pronounced the man dead at the scene. Police have yet to release the name of the deceased.

According to information shared with Holden’s office, the deceased allegedly overdosed on drugs, but neither the NYPD nor the city’s Department of Homeless Services could confirm the cause of death when contacted by QNS.

“Protecting the health and safety of our clients is our top priority. We work to ensure that we are providing quality care and comprehensive security at our sites, and our provider-partner staff work closely with clients to help them stabilize their lives, a DHS spokesperson told QNS in a statement. “When we learn of any fatalities at our sites, even in cases of natural causes, we absolutely cannot make any immediate determinations and must defer to a medical examiner’s report to determine the cause of death. We have necessary processes and protocols in place to ensure we are doing our due diligence,”

Holden continues to hold former Mayor Bill de Blasio and former Department of Homeless Services Commissioner Steve Banks responsible for the shelter’s ongoing issues in the Glendale area. Holden once again called on the city to close the homeless shelter for good.

“Former Mayor de Blasio and the ‘Grim Reaper,’ former DHS Commissioner Banks, recklessly pushed this shelter, fully aware of its impact on my constituents’ lives,” said Holden. “WestHab’s involvement, driven by questionable affiliations, has only exacerbated the problems. Another overdose death underscores the urgency of shutting down this ill-conceived shelter — a decision that should have been made years ago.”

Teenage girl sexually harrassed and assaulted twice walking by Ozone Park homeless shelter

 

 

Wednesday, August 16, 2023

1:00 PM

Laurel Hall Shelter

85-15 101 Ave

Ozone Park NY 11416

Provider-Lantern

Agency-DHS

Owner-Asher Shafran/Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Do we wait for someone to get raped before anyone will listen to us?

On July 18, 2023, a 17-year-old girl, a minor, was sexually harassed and terrified by clients of DHS/Lantern living in the Laurel Hall Shelter. We approached Lantern and asked for a meeting to resolve this situation. A meeting was set for Tuesday, August 8, 2023, with Senator Addabbo, Community Board # 9 District Manager James McClelland, the NYPD 102 Pct Captain Kivlin with community affairs, and the parent of the 17-year-old and Lantern. Ironically, the night before the meeting, August 7, 2023, the same girl was sexually harassed; this time, a police report was filed with the 102 PCT. When we arrived Tuesday, Lantern refused to meet with us after knowing that this meeting was set up for almost ten days, slamming the door in our faces and refusing to even talk to the Senator. Their excuse was DHS told them not to meet with us. UNACCEPTABLE AND UNPROFESSIONAL. Total disregard for our Ozone Park community.

 

We are holding a press conference with the parent of the 17-year-old girl to put a face to the problem and show this administration that these are real people being affected by mismanaged providers who have no regard for our community. We have had a very cordial relationship with the past management of Lantern, but the new administration has proven to be ineffective in working with our community and keeping our residents safe. If this is a sign of things to come, ALL communities must be vigilant and aware of what is happening or what could happen. This could have easily turned into another rape, but the girl lives next to the shelter and was able to free herself and get home both times.

 

A reminder that on October 2019, a 3-year-old was sexually molested by a resident of this very same shelter. DHS, under Steve Banks's and Mayor Deblasio's leadership, did nothing, nor did they try to help resolve this. At the time, an arrest was made with no help from DHS or Lantern. Warrants had to be issued as DHS refused to aid in the arrest.

We now demand Mayor Eric Adams look at everyone who was rolled over from the Banks/Deblasio days and either gets reassigned or fired. We are not going to wait for a repeat of molestation again. We are informing the city that the next time we will file a class action lawsuit holding the city, Dhs, Lantern, and the property owners responsible for all criminal activity from this shelter. You will NOT destroy our quality of life with your inability to control these clients. Many of them have untreated mental illness, and Lantern, DHS, nor NYC are doing anything to help.

 

We are also monitoring the sex apps to catch them using public areas to have sex. We have since closed 1 locations they got caught in and had them fenced up so they canot use them anymore. We also watch for the parks where they were trying to hook up there and have since turned that over to the NYPD.

DHS/Office of Intergovernmental Affairs was given seven days to set up the Community Advisory Board (CAB) Meeting, and here we are; nothing has been done. So we are now holding a press conference and allowing the mother of the minor 17-year-old to speak her voice and give a face to the sexual harassment and the inadequate way this shelter is being run. The mother has now advised us that she lives in fear and that she now wants to move.

The demands are as follows:

1-All personnel rolled over from the Banks/Deblasio administration need to be reassigned. They have proven to be inefficient, unconcerned and uncooperative.

2-We are asking for a review of Lantern's contract. What services are supposed to be provided, and what assistance are these clients supposed to have? We believe Lantern has cut corners and sacrificed our communities safety for profits.

 
3-Lantern needs to provide effective and caring leadership as the current leadership has failed our community as well as its mission statement of caring for the shelter clients while working with the community.

4- A review of how these clients are permitted to roam all over the neighborhood, stealing packages, drinking, causing havoc, and sitting on people's stoops with no programs provided by Lantern makes for more criminal activity.

5-We demand that we return to the days of the CAB meetings so that, as a community, we get to speak our voices, and they get to hear our concerns.

6-Security needs to be beefed up inside and outside this shelter. Loitering has become a huge problem surrounding this site, and security is doing nothing.

7-Lantern needs to respect our community, and we are tired of our voices not being heard.

8-We demand that the NYPD have access when necessary when a crime has been committed by a shelter client and not stonewalled by Lantern or DHS.

Sam Esposito

President

Ozone Park Residents Block Association-ozpkrba

Update: 

QNS

A furious and fed-up Ozone Park mother rallied with community leaders Wednesday, Aug. 16, outside a shelter for homeless men where her 17-year-old daughter was allegedly sexually harassed by residents twice in the last month.

Lissette Moreno joined members of the Ozone Park Residents Block Association outside the Laurel Hall Shelter at 85-15 101st Ave. and told them about the first incident that happened to her daughter on July 18, as the teenager was walking home late at night after her shift at Russo’s on the Bay in Howard Beach.

“It’s just not safe here. You have people here with mental illnesses that shouldn’t be here and if they are here, they should be on medication, they should be supervised,” Moreno said. “This shelter needs to go. It’s too dangerous for our kids,”

She said she lives on 86th Street directly next door to the shelter which is located across 101st Avenue from Crossover Baptist Church a block away from Ampere Playground. 

 “Who puts a shelter here where there are schools, where there are children? I have my daughter, she comes home from work at late hours, why does she have to be harassed by these guys?” Moreno asked. “I’m just so tired.”

She wanted her daughter to speak at the rally, but she stayed away out of fear of being targeted by the residents of the shelter. Moreno said the men are out in front of the building each night drinking and smoking and blasting loud music.

“This is a men’s shelter, so when they’re outside they want to interact with women,” Moreno said.

After her daughter was allegedly sexually molested by two men in front of the shelter on July 18, Moreno found her daughter trembling as the men were telling the teen to add their numbers to her phone. Two days later, one of the same men followed her daughter up the block. Her complaints have fallen on deaf ears and the people who run the shelter “have no compassion,” she said, adding her daughter wants to move out of the neighborhood and they are currently looking for a new place.

Mario Cuomo's daughter's homeless shelter closes down

Gothamist

A notorious homeless shelter on Wards Island with ties to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo's sister has quietly closed following years of complaints about conditions.

The 200-bed HELP-USA facility for men with mental illness — formerly run by Cuomo's sister, Maria Cuomo Cole — was shut down in December despite a record number of people staying in city homeless shelters. There were more than 70,000 people in the shelter system Wednesday night, according to official data.

A spokesperson for HELP-USA — which the former governor founded more than 30 years ago — confirmed the closure. Cuomo Cole serves on HELP’s board of directors and describes herself as chair emeritus. The nonprofit operates three other shelters on Wards Island.

“Unfortunately, due to concerns with the building infrastructure, we were forced to close the site at the end of 2022,” HELP spokesperson Stephen Mott said.

The organization’s five-year, $65 million contract with the city to operate the shelter was due to expire in June, according to city comptroller records.

Crumbling conditions at the 13-story Meyer building earned the shelter the distinction of being one of the worst in New York City.

Shelter inspection reports issued by the Coalition for the Homeless revealed frequent heat outages, The City reported in 2019.

In 2021, a resident was stuck in a broken elevator at the building for four nights.

The barracks-style shelter on an isolated island served by a single bus line was especially tough for people with mental illness, Legal Aid attorney Joshua Goldfein said.

“This place was barely fit for human habitation, in addition to being inaccessible and terribly located,” he said.

Goldfein described a litany of problems, including drafty windows that HELP-USA attempted to address by covering them with plexiglass. But the quick fix cut off ventilation in the shared dormitories, a problem reported by Curbed in 2021. Elevators in the “fortress-like” building were only accessible by stairs, limiting access for people in wheelchairs or with other mobility issues, Goldfein added.

Mott, HELP-USA’s chief strategy officer, said all of the sleeping areas and common spaces in the shelter had air conditioning units that operated well.

He said residents were moved to permanent housing and other shelters throughout the city. The Department of Homeless Services said the closure was planned, but did not provide specifics about where residents were placed. An spokesperson for the agency said it has no plans to reopen the facility as a shelter.

Andre D-Nyse, a former resident of the facility, told Gothamist that staff and fellow residents frequently brought weapons. Shelter staff, he said, also used pepper spray on people.

“People have weapons and be hurting people in their sleep,” D-Nyse said in a text message. “I can’t live like this no more… I’m moving to the street as soon as it gets warmer out.”

 

Caption sleepy Mayor Adams

3-year-old boy beaten to death at Pan American Hotel homeless shelter

 

 Queens Post

A toddler is dead after being found battered and bruised inside a homeless shelter in Elmhurst Sunday — and police are investigating the incident as a homicide.

The victim, a 3-year-old boy named Shaquan Butler, was found at around 7:40 p.m. by police inside the Boulevard Family Residence — a family homeless shelter located at 79-00 Queens Boulevard. The child’s parents called 911, police said.

Butler was unconscious and unresponsive with bruises throughout his body that were in different stages of healing, according to the NYPD.

The child had a faint pulse when emergency services arrived on the scene and he was then transported by EMS to NYC Health & Hospital/Elmhurst but could not be saved, police said.

The toddler was also found to have had a collapsed lung, police said.

The victim’s mother told police that the child began to act strangely and began choking shortly before they called 911, the NYPD said.

He then ran into a pillar inside the shelter, fell back and struck his head on the floor, the boy’s mother told police.

 However, police say that story was inconsistent with his injuries and the NYPD has now launched a homicide investigation.

 

Glendale warehouse homeless shelter continues to be a pit of despair and violence

 

CBS New York 

 The rough conditions inside a Queens congregate men's shelter with about 180 residents have sparked a city investigation.

It comes after a 27-year-old man experiencing homelessness became a whistleblower, sharing photos, videos and his personal ordeal exclusively with CBS2's Dave Carlin.

"I never saw myself in a position like this, ever a day in my life, no," said the man, who wished to remain anonymous.

He moved to New York from Texas a year ago, landed a job in hospitality working fancy events, but the very opposite of that is where he's been sleeping.

"I make about $27 an hour with that company alone," the man said.

"And it's still too hard to find a place?" Carlin asked

"Yep," the man said.

So, he is experiencing homelessness, surrounded by apparent squalor, drug use and violence inside Glendale's Cooper Rapid Rehousing Center with a population of more than 180 men.

He started taking videos and photos of what goes on inside after being harassed and attacked.

"I do identify as queer," the man said. "I was assaulted multiple times. The police came out, they said it wasn't really their issue, it's something that has to be dealt with internally." 

He says he can confirm what many neighbors are claiming about crime spilling out of the shelter and into the community. 

"A lot of drug dealing happening around the area, people doing sexual activity over by the school right behind the shelter, and I've seen this all first hand," the man said. "I did my due diligence in finding my local city councilman and I reached out to him."

On Wednesday, Councilman Robert Holden made sure the young man was reassigned elsewhere to a hotel room.

"He's talented. We want to help him. He did a service to everyone in New York City, showing the conditions of the shelters," Holden said. "Get him an apartment, that's my goal, to get him an apartment."

"I know that something good will end up coming out of this," the man said.

Something good, according to Holden, is the city shutting down the Cooper Center.

"The mayor is looking at it. So is [New York City Department of Homeless Services] Commissioner [Gary] Jenkins," Holden said.

"This is supposed to be a working men's shelter, but time and time again, we have people that have severe mental illness ... that really don't fit with what the shelter was for," Glendale resident Dawn Scala said.

Holden favors facilities with smaller groups of residents so their needs can be handled more effectively.

"It's a de Blasio leftover. We need to change it ... I don't believe that we should put 200 men in one location," Holden said.

Glendale homeless shelter devolves into crime pit, as expected

 

QNS

The Cooper Rapid Rehousing Center has been a hot spot for crime in the Glendale area since it opened in 2020, with a staggering 808 911 calls and 71 arrests made. QNS received exclusive data regarding the operations at the shelter after Councilman Robert Holden demanded answers from the mayor’s office on its effectiveness.

There are currently 183 homeless men residing at the Cooper Rapid Rehousing Center at 78-16 Cooper Ave., none of which are from Community Board 5, Holden said. Most of the residents came from other boroughs.

Councilman Robert Holden has been a staunch opponent of the shelter since it was just an idea. Earlier this year, Holden called on the city to investigate the shelter, claiming it was not upholding its contractual obligations to provide basic benefits like employment services and life skills programming. 

“[Department of Homeless Services], the city, the Bill de Blasio administration has broken almost every promise,” Holden said. “They said this would be an employment shelter, and it’s not. It puts a lot of stress on the limited resources of the 104th Precinct.”

Holden has been battling to get data revealing the operations of the shelter, and finally after contacting Mayor Eric Adams himself, was able to get a look into the shelter’s efficiency. 

Of the 183 men living at the Cooper shelter, 52% of them are employed, according to data from the mayor’s office.

According to the city, they estimate about 64% of the unemployed men are able to work. The average stay for a resident is 314 days.

Since 2020, 71 arrests were made, mainly for assault. Most of the over 800 911 calls made were for an ambulance or a call for help.

 

City rules in favor for non-profit's homeless shelter in Ozone Park after long legal battle

 

City Land 

 A not-for-profit proposed to convert two buildings in Ozone Park into homeless services facilities. In July 2016, Common Ground Management Corporation, a not-for-profit organization, applied to the City of New York for approval of a homeless shelter and services project. The non-for-profit organization intended to convert two multistory adjacent buildings in Ozone Park into temporary housing for homeless adults that would provide medical and psychiatric services, meals, laundry, and showers for stays of up to nine months.

Neighbors in the area sued the City of New York to stop the development of the Ozone Park project. The neighbors claimed that the City had unlawfully segmented the environmental review. The neighbors reasoned that the Ozone Park project was part of the City’s 2017 City-wide plan to address homelessness and asserted that the City was required to conduct an environmental review of each project that was part of the 2017 plan.

Queens County Supreme Court Justice Howard G. Lane ruled against the neighbors, finding that the City had not segmented its environmental review. The court found that the City’s 2017 report was a “general agency policy” and the City had not yet identified specific locations to create the homeless shelters. Further, the facilities to be built as part of the City-wide plan would be sponsored by various organizations, built at different times and by different contractors, and would not be dependent on one another.

Community board slams shelter apartment building

 

 Queens Chronicle

A proposal to build 90 temporary apartment-style units for homeless families in Flushing was met with universal opposition Monday night during a remote meeting of Community Board 7.

But Asian Americans for Equality, which wants to build the structure at 39-03 College Point Blvd., told the Chronicle that the plan is far different from so-called “day shelters” and it is not really a shelter at all.

City officials in an email also disputed accusations that the project was approved without community notice in general and notification of CB 7 in particular.

AAFE on its website says the units are for families experiencing short-term hardships, such as those who may have just lost their homes and those who may have been living in illegal apartments.

Jennifer Sun, co-executive director of the agency, said they hope to break ground in the spring and begin operating in 2024.

Not if those in Monday’s virtual meeting have anything to say about it. Board Chairman Gene Kelty was particularly critical of the lame-duck city officials and the Department of Homeless Services.

“The problem is the city says they don’t need our approval,” said Board Chairman Gene Kelty. “They’re just coming in. They’re calling it transitional family housing and not a shelter for men or women ... And how do they do it? In December at the end of the year when everyone is leaving office.”

Kenneth Chu said volunteers collected more than 20,000 petition signatures in opposition to the plan last weekend.

They also are being backed by Tom Grech, president and CEO of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, who spoke briefly.

“We’re opposed to a shelter in this location,” Grech said. “No responsible person would deny the need for safe shelters for families. This location does not make any sense. Flushing is undergoing a renaissance. We all need to work to find a better use for that property.”

Sun told the Chronicle that the agency has been active for more than 50 years, including two decades in Flushing.

“The city is calling this a shelter, but it’s not a shelter, not like day shelters you see,” she said, adding that services on-site are aimed at getting residents into permanent housing quickly.

Blissfully overbuilding in Blissville

The status as of November 2020: Here it is in 2021: So what the hell is this?

Wait for it....

Stevie needs one more homeless shelter before he exits stage left.

Peruse the filings at your own will.

Sent by the original Crapper

Douglaston shelter suspended for now

  

Queens Chronicle

The Douglaston Civic Association secured a temporary restraining order against the city last week in an effort to stop a planned homeless shelter from opening in the neighborhood.

The building at 243-02 Northern Blvd., the former Pride of Judea, is in the process of being converted to house 75 single women over the age of 49. The civic group has long complained that the plans do not outline acceptable living conditions.

“That’s completely overcrowding,” civic President Sean Walsh told the Chronicle. “That’s less room than they’d have in a jail site. If you’re trying to help the homeless, this isn’t the way to do it.”

The TRO was filed Oct. 14 and will prevent the city, Department of Homeless Services and the developers from progressing on the project, which was set to open before the end of 2021.

The Douglaston Civic has advocated against the shelter since it was announced in December 2020, but not, it says, because it is wary of homeless individuals living in its neighborhood. Walsh wants to be clear that the group is concerned with the conditions of the dormitory-stye “barracks” and lack of bathrooms planned, but would welcome the women if they were given appropriate living quarters.

“If they want to build a permanent residence for women who are down on their luck, they can build small apartments at this site. We’d have no objection to that,” said Walsh, saying those wouldn’t accommodate as many individuals but would provide each with appropriate space.

The civic has another issue with the former Pride of Judea site: The building would not conform to city zoning laws. Walsh said the building, which previously served as a mental health clinic with offices, would need a variance to be used for housing.

“Whatever they want to put there has to conform to laws. The building as they proposed does not,” Walsh said.

The DHS told the Chronicle that the allegations against the shelter are inaccurate. A spokesperson asserted that it will fall in line with all health and safety codes.

“The health and safety of the New Yorkers who we serve is our number one priority. Whenever [Department of Social Services] approves a proposal for shelter, we expect a finished product that is ready for occupancy and complies with relevant laws, rules, and regulations, including City safety requirements,” the spokesperson said in an email, adding that the agency is confident the courts will agree and recognize that the shelter is a necessary resource for the neighborhood.

How The Other Half Lives 2021

  

NY Daily News

 This is how New York City thanks them for their service.

Cramped cubicles, a leaky ceiling, and a community bathroom. That’s not what homeless veterans — who were promised sanitary, private accommodations to keep COVID at bay — were expecting when they moved into their new city shelter on Wednesday.

“It’s more or less like a prison,” veteran Raheem Allah, 69, told the Daily News. “Really, we’ve been shafted.”

On Tuesday, the city began moving Allah and other homeless vets out of hotels — where they were placed at the beginning of the pandemic — and into the Borden Avenue Veterans Residence, a men’s shelter in Long Island City, Queens, tucked behind a cooking oil warehouse and the Pulaski Bridge.

Allah, who was transferred out of a Howard Johnson’s hotel in Dutch Kills, Queens was among those promised a private room at the new shelter. With multiple heart problems and severe asthma, he’s at a high risk of hospitalization and death if he contracts COVID-19.

But the army vet told The News that his room looks like a public bathroom stall, with partitions that don’t touch the ceilings and allow for free airflow between sleeping areas. A tarp keeps water from dripping onto his head and electrical outlets in the cubicles don’t work, Allah said. He’s been charging his phone at a nearby subway station.

DHS ceases using neighboring hotels for sheltering homeless families

 

Redding St. 2017, JQ LLC

 

Queens Chronicle 

The city will be phasing out the use of two Ozone Park hotels to shelter homeless families in the fall, according to the city Department of Homeless Services.

Travelodge by Wyndham Ozone Park located at 137-30 Redding St. is slated to close Sept. 30, and the Ozone Inn & Suites at 137-08 Redding St. will close on Nov. 30.

The DHS will work with approximately 23 households residing at these locations over the coming weeks to connect some to permanent housing and others to alternative shelter placements.

The agency’s use of the two Ozone Park locations goes back to late 2016. They are not Covid-period commercial hotels, which the agency used throughout the pandemic to provide social distancing for its clients, and also began dismantling in July.

The agency maintains that the effort to transition from its use of hotels for homeless shelters is part of a longer-term process of phasing out the stop-gap use of commercial hotels that goes back to previous administrations.

“No one will be displaced and turned out onto the street. This is normal course-of-business work that is part of the plans/commitments we laid out in the Mayor’s Turning the Tide plan several years ago,” wrote a Department of Social Services spokesperson in an email response to questions from the Chronicle.

These hotels have been used as shelters for nearly a half a decade, so why do this now with the Delta Variant spreading?

Delusional Adams wants to keep Steve Banks

Let's see the results of Steve Banks' DHS leadership. Taken outside the "Cooper Rapid Rehousing Center" in Glendale. Last year, DHS told us, "The shelter will serve 200 single men experiencing homelessness who are currently employed or actively seeking employment."

Do these guys look employable?

Great job, Steve!

Meanwhile, Patch is busy looking for "experts" to call Douglaston residents "NIMBY" for not wanting a shelter in their neighborhood. Gee, I can't imagine why they'd be opposed.

Man who kicked and stomped a 65-year-old Asian woman served time for killing his mother and lived in a nearby hotel shelter

 

 

NY Daily News

 An elderly woman walking through Hells Kitchen became the latest victim of an unprovoked anti-Asian attack, in a brutal, caught-on-video assault.

Cops have charged a man out on parole for killing his mother with the caught-on-video stomping of a 65-year-old Asian woman outside a luxury Manhattan building, a hate crime that shocked the city, officials said Tuesday.

Brandon Elliot, 38, was charged with assault as a hate crime and other charges at 1:10 a.m. Wednesday after cops received numerous Crime Stoppers tips, authorities said.

“This was a horrific, horrific attack,” NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea told PIX11 Wednesday. “(The victim) has very significant injuries and she has a long recovery ahead of her.”

In 2002 Elliot, then 19, was arrested for fatally stabbing his mother three times in the chest in front of his sister, who was 5, in the Bronx. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.

He was released on supervised release and lifetime parole just 16 months ago.

Elliot was nabbed for the hate crime at the Four Points by Sheraton, a hotel-turned-homeless-shelter on W. 40th St. — just a few blocks from where he allegedly attacked his victim, according to cops. Elliot has been living at the hotel, which the city has been using to house homeless men.