de Blasio let security contract balloon at hotel shelter for inmates during the pandemic

THE CITY

In the early months of the COVID pandemic, as the virus spread like wildfire through New York City, the de Blasio administration began placing inmates released from Rikers and state prisons into hotels.

The point was to keep them safe — and to curb the spread of the virus. But did City Hall implement adequate safeguards to protect the released inmates from non-COVID dangers?

One former inmate THE CITY spoke to alleges she was sexually assaulted in August 2020, while staying at a hotel involved in the program, the Wyndham Hotel in Fresh Meadows. She is suing Exodus Transitional Community, the nonprofit group hired by the city to administer hotel placements.

When asked by THE CITY, the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice (MOCJ), which oversaw the project, could not definitively identify the firm that provided security at the Wyndham as a subcontractor to Exodus. At times, MOCJ and Exodus pointed to two different firms as the security provider in 2020.

But when reached by THE CITY, executives at these two firms denied that their companies were subcontracted to provide security at the Wyndham. Under law, firms that provide security at city shelters, including hotel placements for inmates, must be properly licensed.

When THE CITY requested documentation that the firm providing security at the hotels had a proper state security guard license, MOCJ provided a license that belongs to one of the firms that denies having anything to do with the ex-inmate placement program.

Records show the no-bid contract signed by the mayor’s office with Exodus to place inmates in hotels grew from $835,000 to $55 million in just 16 months. Under the arrangement with MOCJ, Exodus was not required to report to the city crisis incidents that occurred there, including violent ones like sexual assault.

The Adams administration recently awarded Exodus another $40 million contract for “emergency reentry hotel services” that runs through June under a no-bid process. Adams’ team did not respond to THE CITY’s question about the nature of the ongoing emergency.

Upon her release from Rikers Island in June 2020, Latoya Walker, 32, was placed into a Wyndham Hotel in Fresh Meadows, one of six hotels managed by Exodus as part of the inmate release program.

There, Walker alleges, she was sexually assaulted in her room by an Exodus employee who’d been assigned to her as a caseworker. The man was ultimately arrested on sex abuse and other charges. Although the Queens district attorney later dropped the case due to delays in bringing it to trial, Walker has since filed a civil suit against Exodus that is pending.

Walker claims that from the moment she brought in the police, Exodus resisted cooperating, delaying turning over a surveillance camera tape that she says helps corroborate her accusation.

After a detective in the special victims squad was assigned to investigate, Walker said, “Exodus wouldn’t give her the tape. They wouldn’t give her information on (the caseworker)’s employment,” she told THE CITY. “I felt like Exodus was just sticking together. Every time I brought it up as something that was bothering me, they started giving me the brush off.”

The Department of Homeless Services managed a similar effort to place shelter residents in hotels to stifle the spread of COVID-19. But DHS required all providers to report every “critical incident,” such as assaults, at the hotels where the homeless were placed. The inmate hotel program had no such requirement.

Exodus’ founder, Medina, refused to answer any of THE CITY’s questions, including whether he reported Walker’s allegations to MOCJ. The mayor’s office also declined to say whether they were aware of the incident, other than to say the hotel ex-inmate program had no incident reporting requirements.

City still using hotel as halfway house

Queens Chronicle

Signs for the Wyndham Garden Hotel in Fresh Meadows came down sometime in the last few months, but it will continue to serve as a transitional community for the formerly incarcerated through the end of the year.

The 61-27 186 St. hotel has been used as a home for formerly detained individuals since April 2020.

“All hotels are under contract, and will remain open, through the end of 2021,” B. Colby Hamilton, the chief of public affairs at the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice said in an email to the Chronicle. “The City is committed to all of our transitional facilities, including those in Queens, that provide those returning from incarceration a much-needed home base of support as they work to reintegrate into our communities. The Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice and our partners inside and outside government are working tirelessly on the next phase of the program in the new year.”

Kandra Clark, the vice president of policy and strategy at Exodus, the group overseeing housing at the hotel, told the Chronicle that the group has not heard from the city about a contract extension date. The staff is working with the 116 residents to help them find permanent housing and employment.

The Fresh Meadows hotel is independently owned and operated as a franchise and hasn’t been affiliated with Wyndhman since September, according to the chain’s global communications director.

City sneakily sent 100 prisoners from Rikers to Fresh Meadows hotel to shelter in place from COVID-19

Queens Eagle

More than 100 people released from Rikers Island are being housed at a Fresh Meadows hotel as part of a city initiative that local leaders say lacked any community input.

The city is putting up the formerly incarcerated New Yorkers at a Wyndham Garden Hotel on 186th Street to prevent the spread of COVID-19 behind bars and in homeless shelters, officials said. The Office of Emergency Management and the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice are overseeing the program.

The city paid for rooms in the hotel because the individuals did not have stable housing and would have otherwise become homeless, said MOCJ spokesperson Colby Hamilton. A handful of other hotels around the city have served the same function.

“This and other hotels have provided an invaluable network of stable, reliable lodging for those in need, keeping people departing the jail system out of congregate housing, while we work with them to find more permanent living solutions going forward,” Hamilton said.

The individuals were released from Rikers Island because they have pre-existing medical conditions that put them at particular risk of COVID-19, he said.

Local Councilmember Barry Grodenchik said he was blindsided by the city’s plan.

“We found out because people started calling the office from the community,” Grodenchik said. “We didn’t get advance notice. At all.”

Grodenchik said he and members of Community Board 8 will tour the facility Wednesday.

The employee who answered the phone at the Wyndham Gardens hotel directed questions to City Hall Tuesday.

“This information is confidential and we cannot give information about who is staying with us and if you want more information you can call the Mayor’s Office,” the official said.