The plutocrats of poverty

The weather is getting colder in #NYC. Today, over 350,000 NYC residents experience homelessness, while only 130,000 find space in insecure and overcrowded city shelters. 1 in 9 NYC students are homeless, and yet our city ONLY prioritizes migrant shelters.

That’s why we need… pic.twitter.com/5lhCXZa72J

— Curtis Sliwa (@CurtisSliwa) October 18, 2024

Gothamist 

Nepotism. Self-dealing. Executive salaries in the high six figures.

These are some of the allegations leveled in a new report on New York City’s multibillion-dollar shelter system released by city investigators on Thursday.

The review, which began in 2021, found a range of potential improprieties at 51 nonprofits that receive taxpayer funds to provide shelter and services for clients of the city Department of Homeless Services, which manages the biggest municipal shelter system in the United States. On an average night, over 87,000 people stay at the more than 500 New York City shelters funded by the department.

The city’s Department of Investigation found multiple instances of apparent conflicts of interest, potential nepotism and failure to comply with competitive bidding requirements on the part of shelter providers, according to the nearly 100-page report.

“City-funded nonprofit service providers pose unique compliance and governance risks, and comprehensive city oversight is the best way to stop corruption, fraud, and waste before it starts,” Department of Investigation Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber said in a statement. “Today’s report provides ample evidence of the risks specific to nonprofits and shortcomings in city oversight and makes 32 recommendations to strengthen controls around this essential network.”

In some cases, insiders were paid outside of their normal compensation through personal business interests involving the shelter where they worked, such as security companies that staffed those shelters — and were owned by the nonprofits they served. In other cases, shelter providers told investigators they did not employ any immediate relatives of senior employees or board members, which would violate their city contracts — but the investigators later found that adult children of shelter executives had been employed by the nonprofits for years.

 Multiple nonprofit executives received more than $500,000 annually, and in some cases more than $700,000 annually, in compensation from the shelter providers and related organizations. Investigators emphasized these salaries were funded largely or in part by taxpayer dollars and said the city lacks sufficient rules to guard against excessive compensation.

Many of the groups have annual revenues in the tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars. More than 90 nonprofit contractors now provide shelter services for the city, up from at least 70 just a few years ago, according to the report. New York City has a decades-old legal right to shelter that generally requires that a bed be provided to anyone who needs one — though this right was curtailed for migrants earlier this year.

The report comes as the city faces a stubborn housing and homelessness crisis exacerbated by the migrant influx since the spring of 2022. The homeless services department’s budget for shelters rose to $4 billion in fiscal year 2024, up from $2.7 billion two years earlier, according to the report. Migrant shelters run by NYC Health and Hospitals — called humanitarian relief centers — were not covered by the review and are being separately monitored by city investigators and a major accounting firm.

A spokesperson for the city’s Department of Social Services, which oversees the shelters, said it has “completely stopped doing business with a number of providers highlighted in the report,” and taken other steps to strengthen accountability for the nonprofit contractors.

“To be clear, this report does not reflect our current contracting and oversight processes given that the review began years ago prior to the current administration, but we look forward to continuing on these improvements to better serve New Yorkers,” the agency said in a statement.

From Sanctuary City to Emergency City

 

AMNY 

Mayor Eric Adams declared a city State of Emergency Friday over the more than 17,000 migrants who have come to the Big Apple seeking shelter since April, calling on Washington and Albany to provide the city with additional resources to handle the influx.

During a live streamed speech at City Hall Friday morning, Adams said the city has been doing all it possibly can to handle the thousands of asylum seekers who are getting bussed here by southern states like Texas after coming from South and Central America across the southern border. This includes stretching the shelter system to nearly 100 percent capacity, opening 42 emergency hotel shelters and building a tent-like shelter on Randall’s Island – first cited for Orchard Beach in the Bronx – he’s dubbed a Humanitarian Relief and Response Center (HERRC).

The emergency declaration, the mayor said, is coupled with an executive order intended to expedite construction of the HERRC.

“New York City is doing all we can, but we are reaching the outer limit of our ability to help,” Adams said. “Today I’m declaring a state of emergency in the city of New York and issuing an executive order. This executive order will direct all agencies to coordinate their efforts to construct the humanitarian relief centers. We are also suspending certain land use requirements to expedite this process.”

Without mentioning them by name, Hizzoner blasted southern elected officials like Texas Governor Greg Abbott for bussing thousands of asylum seekers to the five boroughs every day without coordinating with his administration or so much as a heads up of when and how many buses will be arriving. Adams repeated what has become a common refrain that Abbott and others are exploiting the city’s “right to shelter” law – that requires it to house anyone seeking shelter – for “political gain.”

“Our right to shelter laws, our social services, and our values are being exploited by others for political gain,” he said. “New Yorkers are angry. I am angry too. We have not asked for this. There was never any agreement to take on the job of supporting thousands of asylum seekers. This responsibility was simply handed to us without warning as buses began showing up. There’s no playbook for this, no precedent.”

And the responsibility of accepting 17,000 asylum seekers and counting comes with a hefty price tag. The mayor said his administration expects to spend at least $1 billion on handling this crisis alone by the end of the current fiscal year next June.

de Blasio's DHS shuttled homeless people from hotels to shelters despite advisory from de Blasio's health department about resurgent pandemic

 

City Limits 

Back in May, as New York was on the precipice of reopening after more than a year of COVID-19 restrictions, the city submitted plans to the state’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) seeking permission to begin transferring around 9,000 homeless adults from hotel rooms back to the group shelters the city had used before the pandemic.

The rooms, rented by the city at the start of the crisis at some 60 hotels across the boroughs, were intended to help curb the spread of the virus by providing shelter residents with access to more private space instead of the often crowded, dormitory-style sites that make up the shelter system.

The effort worked—just 0.4 percent of the city’s total COVID-19 cases have been among New Yorkers experiencing homelessness, officials say—but their use was always intended to be temporary, Mayor Bill de Blasio repeatedly stressed.

In seeking the state’s permission to cease using the hotel sites, the city’s Department of Social Services (DSS) and Department of Homeless Services (DHS) submitted detailed plans to the state on how it would do so in order to minimize COVID risks, including meeting a series of specific criteria laid out by the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH).

But a month later, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo lifted the state’s COVID-19 restrictions and social distancing guidelines in light of increasing vaccination rates, meaning the city no longer needed state permission to move forward on the hotel phase-outs. Those earlier required plans, a spokesperson for the former governor told City Limits at the time, were “moot.”

In the months since, the city has pushed forward on the controversial hotel transfers, despite legal challenges that temporarily halted the practice this summer. And the moves have been carried out without needing to meet the requirements the city set for itself in those May plans sent to the OTDA, since it was no longer required by the state to do so.

But those earlier draft plans, obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request by advocates from the Urban Justice Center’s Safety Net Project and shared with City Limits, offer a look at the city Health Department’s initial recommendations for the moves, at odds with how the actual transfers have been carried out since.

The letter city agencies sent to OTDA on May 18 includes a list of Health Department “shelter reopening metrics,” and recommends that shelter populations should “remain in hotels until the criteria laid out in this document are met.” The criteria included, among other things, that the 7-day average hospital admission threshold for COVID-like illnesses remain below 50 cases per day, and that the city sees “no unforeseen changes in the COVID-19 disease landscape” such as “a major increase in COVID-19 variants of concern.”

The Health Department also recommended that the hotel-to-shelter relocations should be “discontinued (if not yet complete) or there should be a return to the use of hotels” if those factors are no longer met. The city’s average COVID-19 hospitalization admissions began to surpass that 50-case threshold beginning in July; it was 54 on Thursday, city data shows. Meanwhile, the highly contagious Delta variant now accounts for 98 percent of positive city COVID tests over the last four weeks, what advocates argue constitutes a major change in the city’s “COVID-19 landscape” that the DOHMH warned about in its draft recommendations.

de Blasio is about to kick homeless people out of hotels where they were sheltered in place during the pandemic...which is still continuing

 

Eyewitness News

  New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday that it is time to move homeless residents who have been housed in hotels during the coronavirus pandemic back to shelters, pending action from the state.

"Everything is ready to go," de Blasio said. "Obviously, the situation is greatly improved. All of our planning is in place. We know exactly what shelters we are going to bring people back to. We are ready to go. What we need is authorization from the state of New York."

 When the pandemic started, the city moved more than 12,000 homeless people out of crowded shelters and into more than 60 hotels to keep them safe and socially distanced.

 However, concerned neighbors have said that while the city fixed one problem, it created another -- including huge quality of life issues in the surrounding neighborhoods.

De Blasio said the city asked for authorization from the state on May 18 but has not yet received it.

"We have not yet gotten that sign off from the state of New York," he said. "Obviously given yesterdays announcement, in particular, it is time to get that clear signoff from the state to move forward."

Taxpayers have been footing the bill of roughly $1 million per night to house the homeless.

Eyewitness News 

 The CDC is now calling the Delta variant, which was first detected in India, a "variant of concern."

The new label raises the profile of the variant significantly. Before, the agency marked the variant as one "of interest."

An alarming rise in infections attributed to the strain inside the U.S. is a warning to communities with low vaccination rates, and recent estimates are that 10% of infections in the U.S. are caused by the Delta variant - a more than 60% increase in this month alone.

CDC reserves the label for variants when there is "evidence of an increase in transmissibility, more severe disease, significant reduction in neutralization by antibodies generated during previous infection or vaccination, reduced effectiveness of treatments or vaccines, or diagnostic detection failures."

The good news is that the vaccines have been shown to be effective against the variant, but much of the population remains ineligible for the vaccine and people who are immunocompromised also remain at risk.

 

The homeless survey says....the city's shelters suck

 

NY Post

Most New Yorkers living on the street and subways have been through the city’s shelter system — and don’t want to go back, according to a new survey of 200 “unsheltered” city residents.

More than three-quarters of respondents from all five boroughs — 77 percent — said they had stayed in the shelter system before and opted to return to the street, according to the report released Monday by the Coalition for the Homeless.

Of those who eschewed shelters, 38 percent cited concerns about their safety while another 44 percent blamed city social workers for being either inefficient, overly-controlling, inattentive or disrespectful, the report said.

“No discipline, security don’t do nothing, food sucks, feel like I’m in prison, no love,” one survey respondent said of the city-run system.

“I’m a human being,” said another. “I don’t want to be treated like an ASPCA mutt.”

City social workers, meanwhile, had approached 84 percent of the individuals surveyed. Yet three-fifths of those approached refused the services offered by the workers — usually a trip back into the shelter system.

Fifty-three percent of respondents said they need real housing to get off the streets, while 26 percent also cited jobs and income.

Survey respondents were approached while living anywhere from subways stations and sidewalks to parks and office building atriums.

Their answers suggest New York City’s street homeless “see the sacrifice of their safety, dignity, and agency as the unacceptable cost of entering the shelter system and so they are left with no choice but to bed down in public spaces,” the report argued.

Update: George The Atheist reporting from Woodside on the city's homeless policy failure 

Security guards fear contracting coronavirus in homeless shelters

 NY Post

New York City’s homeless shelters have become “breeding grounds” for the coronavirus because of a lack of protective gear and sanitary procedures, claims the head of the union representing shelter security guards.

“I believe the shelters have become breeding grounds for the coronavirus,” Gregory Floyd, president of Teamsters Local 237 told The Post.

“The security officers have been given no masks, no gloves, no nothing.”

He said some of the 58,000 homeless individuals who seek shelter are ill and have compromised immune systems.

Floyd said he decided to go public after hearing complaints from officers at the shelters. His members patrol 41 shelters.

For example, three clients at Pam’s Place, a shelter for women in Long Island City, were ill and coughing on Sunday, seeking medical attention.

Security officers accompanied them in the shelter’s lobby after calling EMS — without the protection of face masks.

“They’re coughing. They’re not wearing masks. We don’t have masks,” a security source at the shelter, who requested anonymity, said.

“We’re sitting ducks.”

A person who identified herself as the shelter’s director of social services declined comment and referred questions to the city Department of Homeless Services.

A percentage of babies born in the city wind up homeless in Cuomo's and de Blasio's New York

NY Daily News

One out of a hundred New York City newborns last year went “home” from the hospital to a homeless shelter, a heartbreaking new analysis by the Coalition for the Homeless revealed.

The group’s annual report, to be released Wednesday, lays blame for that and scores of other sobering statistics squarely at the feet of the two most powerful men in New York — Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio.

“New York City’s homelessness crisis will not improve until Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio treat homelessness like the urgent humanitarian crisis it is and acknowledge that it is fueled by the massive lack of affordable housing," said Giselle Routhier, the coalition’s policy director.

Aside from infants, the hardest hit by the homelessness crisis in recent years are the elderly, blacks and Hispanics, according to the report.

De Blasio has made the problem worse through a policy that “exacerbates" a housing market divided between the rich and poor and that creates too many high-rent units and not enough that are affordable, the report says.

The coalition also blamed Cuomo for implementing “damaging cost-shifting practices" that lowered the amount of money the state put toward addressing homelessness, putting further financial stress on the city.

“Mayor de Blasio and Gov. Cuomo seem content with minimalist, symbolic and too-often harmful actions made under the pretense of attempting to manage the problem, rather than taking the substantive steps needed to solve it," the report states.

Conflicting asbestos controversy at upcoming homeless shelter in Glendale.

QNS


The city Department of Buildings (DOB) has confirmed that work on a defunct Glendale factory was not outside the bounds of the existing permit on the site, but Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) confirmation is still pending that no asbestos was disturbed during work on the building to convert it into an office building after a Tuesday morning inspection.

Multiple city agencies were investigating allegations that workers illegally removed asbestos material from 78-16 Cooper Ave., which was long rumored to be a potential homeless shelter.

That plan may be a step closer toward becoming a reality. In August, the owners of the building submitted an amendment to their application to include a “transient lodging house” which has not yet been approved, according to a DOB spokesman.

The DOB said they have not received specific floor plans for review on the amendment yet, but that the owners hoped to build a facility to accommodate about 100 beds.

Holden’s office, however, has said the DOB informed him of an issue with their records and this amendment goes back to August instead of January which the DOB confirmed.

Video surfaced on the Glendale Civic Association Facebook page on Monday night that depicted two individuals who claimed to be “from the community” confronting a worker who had been supposedly removing floor tile from the site.

 Last night, Glendale residents noticed workers at the property and expressed their concerns by contacting my staff and I, and submitting 311 complaints,” Holden said on Jan. 15. “One of my staff members went to the scene last night, and I stopped by the site this morning when NYC Environmental Protection was responding to the situation. After placing several calls to the commissioner’s office, the DEP has informed me that a stop-work order was issued until test results confirm whether or not asbestos was disturbed by the workers.”

UPDATED: Is the Parc Hotel being converted into a shelter?

Response 12/8/18:

"Hi, this is owner from the parc hotel. I saw your blog posted the parc will be homeless shelter. That’s all rumor, parc hotel is planning to renovate floor by floor during this winter but still bookable during renovation. its never gonna be homeless shelter!

Thank you so much."

Guangyang An

Original post:

"Not sure if you've heard but they are converting the Parc Hotel on College Point Blvd in Flushing to a homeless shelter. The apparent move in date is Sunday, 12-9-2018. The management team that runs the hotel had been fired a few days ago and they are moving forward with this conversion. I've tried to contact CB7 to confirm about this, but if its true, this is pretty major considering there was no meeting or notice about this and to only find out about it the Friday before the move in date is pretty extraordinary. I really hope this isn't true but I was wondering if you had heard anything about this.

Jason
Flushing Resident"

Blissville shelter changes hands; another "hotel" on the horizon

From The Real Deal:

Brooklyn investor Shulem Herman has gone to Queens for his latest purchase.

Herman has purchased a homeless shelter in Long Island City from Lam Group for $36.5 million, according to property records. He took out a roughly $23.2 million mortgage for the purchase from Sterling National Bank.

The 154-room building used to be a Fairfield Inn hotel and is located at 52-34 Van Dam Street.

Who knew owning a homeless shelter could be so lucrative? Actually, that's been apparent for years, so we'll end sarcasm right here.



From The Real Deal:

Another day, another Long Island City hotel from Sam Chang.

The developer filed permits with the city’s Department of Buildings on Monday for a 14-story hotel with 282 rooms. The project at 52-02 Van Dam Street would span about 82,000 square feet and replace a pair of industrial buildings.

This is the latest of many hotels Chang’s McSam Hotel Group is planning for the neighborhood. The company is also building a 324-key hotel nearby at 38-39 9th Street and a 142-key hotel at 38-04 11th Street.

Wow, it's certain that tourists will flock to a hotel that is hard to get to and sits amidst 3 homeless shelters. Unless there is some kind of hidden plan here. Hmm, what could McSam be up to? End sarcasm again.

You know, this neighborhood had so much potential. Instead the city is turning it into a slum. Well, this guy thinks it's great for some reason but everyone else sees the forest through the trees.

Cozy relationships may have brought shelter to College Point

From the Times Ledger:

City Councilman Paul Vallone (D-Bayside) confirmed Thursday that a controversial men’s shelter will open in College Point next year.

The Department of Homeless Services (DHS) spoke to Vallone Nov. 14 and notified him that they would be moving forward with the proposed shelter at 127-03 20th Ave.

According to the Vallone, the shelter could come as early as next September.

“Our fears were confirmed that 127-03 20th Avenue has been approved for use as a homeless shelter as early as September 2019,” Vallone said. “David Levitan’s greed sold out all of College Point for profit over the needs of our entire community.”

“This is a site that was deliberately purchased and converted for use as a homeless shelter — a despicable act by one owner who has no regard for the communities he infiltrates. We will continue to fight and stand with College Point,” he added.

Despicable act by one owner?

Yes, it was deliberately purchased and converted for use as a homeless shelter by David Levitan and Steven Berger. So who really sold out College Point since everyone knows what those two are all about? Why, it was none other than Gina Argento of Broadway Stages fame, a close friend of the mayor! Let's not forget that her husband, John Ciafone, has organized at least one fundraiser for Peter Vallone, and has been friends with the Vallone family for decades. Hmmm....

Also note that the sale of the property happened more than a year ago (just before the City Council election), but the transfer didn't happen until well after, in March.

Not to worry, we're sure Vallone and the born-again progressive, John Liu, will be right on top of this one. The voters of northeast Queens are to be applauded for their wise choices at the polls.

College Point threatened with homeless shelter

Hotel oversaturation about to hit its peak

From the NY Post:

New York City’s hotel-building boom has led to an oversupply of rooms — and enticing deals for aggressive acquirers who believe prices have finally hit a bottom.

In 2007, there were a mere 73,692 hotel rooms and just 357 hotels. By 2017, that number had jumped to 115,532 rooms and 632 hotels, according to NYC & Co. Another 18,960 rooms will join the already oversaturated market by 2020.

It seems we're going to have a major hotel-to-shelter conversion happening come 2020 when the city decides to bailout this industry. How many of these projects got zoning changes and variances for something the city doesn't need?

Homeless woman is sick of De Blasio's BS

From PIX11:

Nathylin Flowers Adesegun says she organized the Friday protest with Vocal NYC, a homelessness advocacy group because she said they are fed up.

At 72 years old, Adesegun is herself homeless, living in a women’s shelter in Queens after being evicted from her rent stabilized apartment back in February 2015.

Adesegun said the group wants 24,000 units from new construction in our city to be used for homeless and low income people and cornering the mayor at the gym was the only way to get his attention.

Bill de Blasio was caught on camera on Thursday brushing off Adesegun, telling her “I’m in the middle of doing my workout. I’m sorry. I can’t do this now.”

The video then shows De Blasio’s security officers stepping in front of the woman as the Democratic mayor gets up and walks away, cell phone in hand.

Adesegun says it worked. She says the group received a call from city hall and was told a meeting would be arranged with the mayor.

However, when PIX11 called a city hall spokesperson to confirm those details, we were told VOCAL NYC will meet with city hall officials and not necessarily the mayor.

Adesegun said they’re not interested in being strung along any further. On October 24th the group plans to protest in front of Gracie Mansion.

Cost of housing homeless skyrockets

From the Wall Street Journal:

New York City has increased spending on housing homeless people in shelters in recent years, but the population continues to hover at more than 60,000 despite efforts to move many into permanent housing, a new city report shows.

During the 2017 fiscal year, the city spent an average of $99 a day to house single adults in facilities in New York City, according to a management report released Monday by Mayor Bill de Blasio. In fiscal year 2018, that number grew to $117 a day.

The increased cost reflects a larger investment in service providers, repairs and security at shelters, according to New York City’s Department of Homeless Services.

The cost of housing homeless families was also more expensive in fiscal year 2018, when more than 22,340 children were living in shelters. During that time, the cost to house families with children averaged $192 a day, up from $171 in fiscal year 2017. In fiscal year 2014, it cost the city an average of $102 each day to house shelter families with children.

Meanwhile, the cost to house adult families rose in fiscal year 2018 to $147 each day, compared with $138 a day during the same period a year earlier, according to the report.

The total budget for the Department of Homeless Services is more than $2 billion, with $172 million added in fiscal year 2018 for shelter operations, according to New York City’s Office of Management and Budget.

A spokesman for Homeless Services said the increased costs reflect a greater investment in the department’s shelter system and more services provided at these shelters.

Ozone Park protests homeless shelter for mentally ill men

Bill would require market feasibility study before hotel building

From SI Live:

After plans surfaced for two boutique hotels on Port Richmond Avenue, Senator Diane Savino (D-Staten Island/Brooklyn) has introduced legislation to combat the increasing number of hotels across the city in neighborhoods that don't have a market need.

The recent outcry against hotels planned for Port Richmond on Staten Island inspired the bill to ensure there is a need for hotels before they are approved.

"It's clear that the city has failed New Yorkers with its indiscretion when it comes to allowing hotels and motels in areas that simply don't need them," said Savino.

The main concern within the Port Richmond community is that the hotels would not generate legitimate business, instead being turned into de facto homeless shelters.

Her legislation would require business owners perform a market feasibility study to ensure that there is a need for a hotel in a specific neighborhood. If the owner can't show that there is a market for the hotel, they wouldn't receive approval to build.

Abandoned Glendale site to become senior housing

From QNS:

More details have emerged about the affordable housing facility for seniors coming to Glendale after the permits for the project have been filed through the Department of Buildings (DOB).

The permits filed on Aug. 3 reveal that the structure to be built at 80-97 Cypress Ave. will rise to 57 feet tall with 45,420 square feet of residential space. The six-story building will contain the previously reported 66 living units as well as a parking lot with 19 spaces, records show.

The basement of the building will include a community room and lounge, an office, a laundry room and a bicycle room for up to five bicycles. The ground floor will house the building’s central office, another community room and four apartments. The second through fourth floors will each contain 14 apartments, while the fifth and sixth floors will contain 10 apartments each.

Ah, We're familiar with this particular pile of crap. Ten years ago, it was featured on this blog. Whatever happened to Mr. Angry?

Previous article:

Formerly known as PSCH, Inc. until a rebranding in 2017, the WellLife Network has owned the site since 2004, according to city records. The building currently on the lot, widely regarded as an eyesore in the community, was never completed because the previous contractor used bad materials that were porous and caused the building to flood every time it rained, Scott said.

The Department of Buildings (DOB) eventually issued a stop work order on the project, and WellLife Network has been formulating a new plan since then.

According to Scott, the old structure will be demolished to make way for the new building, but there is no timetable yet.

The often forgotten building on Cypress Avenue regained attention this year after the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) issued a request for community boards and elected officials to recommend possible homeless shelter sites. Not knowing the current status of the site, Councilman Robert Holden suggested the Cypress Avenue building be used as a homeless shelter, he said.

Pam's Place is a hellhole

"From July 11 through July 25, 2018 the Dutch Kills community was forced to endure three completely unacceptable incidents directly related to clients at “Pam’s Place,” a shelter for homeless women at the former Verve Hotel at 40-03 29th Street in Long Island City.

• At 10:30 p.m. on July 11th, shelter client Yaremis Perdomo, 33, became enraged and set her 51-year-old roommate on fire. Perdomo has since been arrested and is being held on attempted murder and other charges related to the attack. The roommate remains in critical condition at the New York Presbyterian Hospital’s Cornell Burn Unit with third-degree burns to her face, arms and hands.

• An unidentified shelter client stood in the center of the intersection at 29th Street and 39th Avenue at about 5 p.m. on July 23rd, tossing loose change into open windows of passing vehicles – snarling traffic, alarming motorists and creating serious safety concerns for pedestrians. Eyewitnesses told police that the shelter client backed off when she spotted police pulling up to the scene, making it impossible for the officers to observe her actions. This unfortunately made it impossible for the officers to charge or summons the woman. The best they could do under current law was to tell the woman to stop, which she promptly did.

• A shelter client viciously, and without provocation, attacked a local woman who was walking on 29th Street near 40th Avenue on July 24th. The unidentified assailant approached the woman, punched her in the mouth and fled. The attack was not reported to police at the 114th Precinct, an NYPD spokesperson said.

I have requested Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer’s chief of staff, Matt Wallace, to call an Emergency Meeting of the Community Advisory Board of “Pam’s Place.”

The purpose of this meeting is to discuss ongoing violent and/or dangerous conditions that spill from the shelter into the Dutch Kills community. These conditions result in a fearful, dangerous environment that substantially affects our residents’, business and quality of life.

The Dutch Kills Civic Association has requested that this meeting to be scheduled for a Tuesday or Wednesday evening at 7:30 p.m. Mr. Wallace has assured us that such meeting will take place in the near future.

The following is a portion of our agenda for this upcoming meeting. We are requesting:

• A listing of all incidents reported to the 114th Precinct regarding Pam’s Place, both inside and outside the shelter – including a client assault on a 114th Precinct officer.

• A complete breakdown of responses by FDNY and other ambulance crews relevant clients at Pam’s Place, both inside and outside the shelter.

• A complete listing of 911 and 311 calls seeking response to conditions at Pam’s Place, both inside and outside the shelter, from October 2016 current to the date of the upcoming meeting.

• A comprehensive report of all disciplinary actions taken by the operators and managers of Pam’s Place regarding troubled or combative shelter clients, from October 2016 current to the date of the upcoming meeting.

• A complete breakdown from the Department of Homeless Services and Sena Security of all incidents related to clients at Pam’s Place, both inside and outside the shelter.

Lastly, in order to ensure an open, transparent dialogue of issues surrounding Pam’s Placer Shelter for Homeless Women, we strongly urge that members of the press be informed and invited to provide coverage of the upcoming meeting.

George L. Stamatiades,
President
Dutch Kills Civic Association of
Long Island City

Ozone Park filing lawsuit to stop shelter

From CBS 2:

Some residents in Queens say they’re going to take the New York City Department of Homeless Services to task for its plans to bring a new men’s shelter to their neighborhood.

They fear a very different kind of housing could stand in the middle of family homes on 101st Avenue near 86th Street in Ozone Park.

The department wouldn’t confirm its shelter proposal, but a document obtained by CBS2 shows a letter sent to elected officials earlier this month explaining the plan to create a transitional housing facility for 113 men facing homelessness and mental health challenges. Residents say it would be far too close to several schools.