After intense community opposition, the City says it is changing its plans to convert a hotel in Queens into a full homeless shelter. Instead, officials say the Holiday Inn Express Maspeth will rent out 30 rooms for working men who are homeless. Originally, the City was looking to turn the entire hotel into a 110-bed shelter, but dropped the plan after the owner refused to move forward. Mayor de Blasio in a statement said “We didn’t back down on sheltering homeless New Yorkers in Maspeth and we won’t in other communities.”
That sentiment is not sitting well with Queens residents and elected officials who want the entire plan scrapped. Dozens protested at the site last night after the City moved in 30 employed homeless men. City Council Member Elizabeth Crowley says the hotel is “an inadequate and illegal option for housing” and State Senator Joseph Addabbo says it “is not an appropriate way of truly assisting a human being in need of help.”
Meanwhile, a new report is highlighting the hardships of children who are homeless. The City’s Independent Budget Office says 1 in 13 City students, or 81,400, were homeless in the 2014-15 school year. The report suggests these students are missing class as they are bounced around homes and shelters, or when they accompany parents while applying for shelter. According to the IBO, a third of children living in homeless shelters missed 40 or more days of school. The City is dealing with near or at record homelessness with 23,643 children and 36,285 adults sleeping at City shelters last night. What do you say?
What’s your reaction to tens of thousands of homeless students who are struggling to get to school? What suggestions do you have to lessen their hardships? Are you satisfied with the City’s change of plans in Maspeth? Do you agree with the Mayor’s remarks that the City won’t back down on sheltering homeless New Yorkers in neighborhoods with community opposition? If you don’t welcome a shelter near your home, is there another part of the City where you would?
Kimberly’s Thoughts
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us tonight. A difficult subject…
As I always write, the City needs to do more to help those living without homes. With winter coming, we have to find ways to decrease our street homeless population. With that said, I don’t welcome the change to the Maspeth shelter proposal. If the Mayor’s administration is going to go against what the neighborhood residents are requesting anyway, I think they should just go ahead and convert the entire building. I think converting only a few rooms in the hotel makes way for some potential issues.
Your thoughts posted below.
Viewer E-mails
We need nice homeless accommodations otherwise where else will DeBlasio and family live next November, if not jail?
David, Brooklyn
It's sad so many kids are homeless and they're still trying to get an education.. I applaud them for trying to stay in school... it's tough being homeless and going to school at the same time.... The City should be doing more for the Homeless families in each borough, the city has to provide more affordable housing in each borough, the rents are to dam high.. Everyone needs a home to live in, especially since the Holidays are coming soon!!! The mayor has to get on the ball and start doing things correctly if he wants to get re-elected in 2017
Herman
Upper West Side
Homeless people are people too they should be allowed to live in any community These all white mobs rallying against people of color being able to live like a human being in any community is pure racial discrimination.
The city really needs to put a cap on all rents so people can live in NYC Stephanie From Corona
Shelters are not the answer for NYC. The burden should be on real estate developers, who make billions in the city, to provide housing for people, as they pretend to do so.
Rob, east village
The Mayor allowed the citizens of Maspeth scare him off. But if a black community resist him he doesn't listen. He's disengenious and puts all the shelters in black communities no matter what they say.
Charlene
Would the residents in these resistant communities be less opposed if shelter housed based on community ethnicity? T
I think that DeBlasio despises both the homeless and poverty-stricken and the middle class and is trying to put them at war with each other. He is owned by the REBNY and has promised them the entire city to build their towers, most of which will be empty and just function as money-laundering investments. DeB is the most hypocritical and corrupt mayor we have had since Boss Tweed.
Frances
EV
I worked for HRA for many years and worked for the Homeless Diversion Unit. During this time, our unit diverted many homeless in New York. We worked with Legal Aids and prevented many families from becoming homeless.
When the Homeless situation came to the point that three females died in a homeless shelter, I e-mailed Commissioner Banks and told him that he could place single homeless in hospitals or senior citizen centers where they were treated and given the medication they needed. After a period of adjustment, perhaps they could moved to other type of housing.
Mr. Banks said I was crazy and have me retiring.
Gloria
From Lupe. Ozone pk. Hey Dean. I think DeBlasio should convert Gracie Mansion into a homeless shelter. He can stay in his townhouse in high class Bklyn. Gary
Housing the homeless men should have in place a way in which the individual is able to save money to watch him getting a decent affordable house home of his own Furthermore the amount of money that's it is allotted a person to live in the shelter it's so much more than what is allotted for an individual to being awarded assistance in obtaining their own home So the city needs to look at the indepentent landlords and the ultimate plan to enable an individual to move out of a shelter needs to be revamped.
Angel from Harlem
The Mayor is making sure that the Holiday Inn in Maspeth will become a full-blown shelter because when people know that homeless people are sheltered there, they are not going to stay there as hotel guests. Who would check into a hotel knowing that it is being used as a homeless shelter? Only some ignorant tourist who doesn't speak or read English! Vickie, StyTown
single people don't count in this city. most people feel sorry for homeless families and children if they have any sympathy at all for homeless people.
single homeless men aren't always criminals or drug addicts or mentally ill or perverts. everyone deserves to have a roof over their heads, but in this particular case we are talking about single WORKING men folks. homelessness is largely about the INABILITY TO AFFORD HOUSING in the city, single people have no where to go and no one feels sorry for them. There used to be SRO's for single folk who were harassed out of their small rooms with shared bathrooms and now those building are hotels and expensive apartments.
Single people do not deserve to be on the street because people are bigoted and ignorant and have no compassion.
shame on you all NIMBY's.
Meryl from Manhattan
So, the city is "not backing down" to the will of the people? That mayor works for us and he has to respect the will of the homeowners who pay taxes and pay his salary. What will a shelter do to the property values?
Cathi
Flushing
The mayor and Commissioner Banks made 2 videos and put out on Twitter videos of Bellerose residents that were totally false. It was a diverse group of residents depicting our neighborhood. No one chanted 'white lives matter', there was no contact with residents. Deblasio made a propaganda video!! Julia
Good evening, I'm watching the call right now and I firmly believe that one of the reasons there are so many homeless families and will continue to increase is because landlords are renting apartments at ridiculously high prices for small spaces in neighborhoods where many of the parents in these homeless families grew up. Landlords are pushing people out of the place they called home all their lives by raising rent prices way too much when they become adults they can't afford it. For example in Washington heights it seems landlords just want to push all hispanics out and rent apartments to students who attend colleges close by because for those students it is cheaper than a dorm room. I think there should be a law where the average income for any given neighborhood is considered and then set rent price limitations accordingly to avoid landlords ultimately changing who lives in a neighborhood. We should not be pushed out, it should not be allowed. Also the mayor should consider that a homeless shelter cost more money than a 1-3 bedroom apartment.
Look no one wants to be by a jail or a mental hospital or a garbage dump, but I am tired of seeing these Maspeth whiners moaning. The hotel isn't anywhere near their homes. Maspeth is wide and sprawling unlike Manhattan or most of Brooklyn. Is it a race issue? All I'll say is take a look at all the NY1 footage of this issue and tell me how diverse the protestors look. Many of these people call themselves Christian. Really? Jesus wept. Spyro from Queens
Socialism: I know it is a dirty word, but in NYC, where some of the wealthiest people in the world live, it is just common sense.
Rob, east village
Shelly is tripping, Arlene was on point. We need a serious Rent cap and a mass movement by all New Yorkers for affordable housing.
To Maria
Keep your head up if you start going through eviction preceding call Nylag legal group for help and if you have to appear in court apply for the Feps program through social services So you have some chance of staying in your apartment Good luck Stephanie From Corona
Stephanie
From Corona