Elected officials are working to phase out the temporary homeless shelters in two Bellerose motels. NY1's Clodagh McGowan filed the following report.
The conversation about housing homeless families in Queens hotels has been a hot-button issue in the borough.
Now, some elected officials say they've come to an agreement with a Bellerose hotel owner to phase out the practice of renting rooms to the Department of Homeless services.
The hotels in question are the Quality Inn and the Bellerose Inn, both on Jericho Turnpike.
"They said they would provide us with an understanding that they would be out of here as of January 1, 2017. So we're going to hold them to that," said City Councilmember Barry Grodenchik, who represents the area.
Officials said there are currently 40 families living at the Bellerose Inn and 14 at the Quality Inn. Residents have complained about people living at the hotel loitering in the neighborhood and smoking marijuana.
"It's not that we don't have any empathy and that we're doing a ‘not in my backyard thing.’ The whole issue is that the people that are put in here don't respect the quality of life in our communities," said Angela Augugliaro, presidents of the Queens Colony Civic Group.
"This is not helping the homeless; this is quite frankly, breeding indignity and inhumanity to them. We need solid solutions for that," said Joseph Concannon, who lives in Bellerose.
State Senator Tony Avella said the Jericho Turnpike hotels are a poor location because they border Nassau County and lack nearby public transportation.
He said he believes the hotel owner will uphold the decision to stop housing families there but now it's up to the city to follow through.
"You have to go along with what the property owner and the hotel owner has said. And we're going to hold the city now, to do its job," said Avella.
A mayoral spokesperson told NY1 negotiations at the Bellerose hotels are on-going.
The spokesperson said, “opponents of our efforts to house the homeless have now trained their sights on homeless toddlers. It's disgusting and dangerous, and our city must stand up against it.”
Meantime, residents plan on protesting in Bellerose this weekend and say they'll continue fighting to keep homeless families out of hotels.