NYC to close homeless shelter....prime real estate, you know.

[Bluebear]

A few of the men staying in the shelter said that they had come straight from living on the streets. One said he had been displaced in a fire, another said he had lost his job and apartment because of a medical condition, and a third said he had a minimum-wage job delivering free newspapers, but did not earn enough to afford a single-room occupancy hotel. As he spoke, rats from a nearby construction site scurried along the curb.

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THE old brick building that sits behind a tall iron fence at East 30th Street and First Avenue has been a haven for the lost since 1931. From that year until 1984 it operated as Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital, and now its ivy-covered walls house some 600 homeless men, along with the main intake center for homeless men citywide. Soon, the building will provide more luxurious shelter: In March, the city’s Economic Development Corporation announced plans to convert it into a hotel and conference center.

The building, the agency says, will be vacant and ready for development by June 2009. The Department of Homeless Services plans to shift its homeless occupants into similar shelters. But it is the fate of the intake center, where homeless people entering the system go to be processed, evaluated and assigned to longer-term housing, that is stirring opposition. The city’s plan, to move the operation to the shelter at the Bedford-Atlantic Armory in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, has raised objections on both sides of the East River.

In Brooklyn, opponents object to the idea of moving more homeless people through their area. In Manhattan, opponents contend that removing the intake center from the borough with the most street homelessness — a city study earlier this year showed that Manhattan had 58 percent of the city’s street homeless people, compared with Brooklyn’s 16 percent — will discourage people from using shelters...


Some of the men had not heard about the city’s plans, and those who had reacted with cynicism. Ray Ramos, 58, predicted that more people would end up on the street or in crowded rooming houses, adding, “Politicians know this will happen. They don’t give a damn,” he said. “They’ll put you in a bird cage. All they want is the premises.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/nyregion/thecity/18disp.html?ref=thecity

[varelse]

1. Why can't they leave both options open for the homeless?

According to Robert Hess, the Homeless Services commissioner, the chronically homeless prefer the smaller havens. “They voted against the shelter system — that’s why they’re on the street,” he said. “They’ve had the opportunity to come into the shelter system each and every night, and they said, ‘No, the best place for me is on the streets.’ That’s a pretty strong statement.”

Mr. Markee commended the outreach teams, but said he did not believe that they could replace a central intake center, a “front door” to the homeless services system, where people know they can go when they need help. Nearly 3,000 men new to the municipal shelter system walked into Bellevue this year, he said. The center serves about 40 people a day, according to a spokeswoman for the city’s homeless services. That figure rises significantly in colder weather.

Why not expand the outreach teams AND leave the "front door" open?

[caseycoon]

2. K&R n/t

[bobbolink]

3. The answer is housing, not shelter, but there isn't enough awareness and concern

to cause that to happen.

:cry:

Thank you so much for posting this, bluebear!

:applause: :hi:

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

5. Although I've been out of touch with this for several years, I remember when the city was placing

homeless families in residential hotels. These were for the most part families that could no longer afford their rent and had been evicted. The hotels were charging the city exorbitant fees. If the city had only subsidized their (the families') rents, millions of dollars could have been saved, and the families would have felt/been secure.

[bobbolink]

6. You have that exactly right, and you should be in office with your awareness!

That is the ridiculous price we are paying for privatizing poverty!

Paying exorbitant fees to slumlords for rundown housing that is injurious to the health and safety of poor folk!

How to we break through this morass???

Thanks! :toast:

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

8. Thanks for your compliments! Years ago we had a situation here where I live now.

I'm about 50 miles north of the city. In a nearby city they were building very expensive triple family homes for the homeless, which was lovely, but the price at that time was about $365,000. There are very many beautiful older large multi family homes in beautiful parts of that city that could have been purchased at less than half the price. So for $365,000 they could have housed 6 families very nicely (with renovations included). I wrote to the local paper about this, and it was published in the letters to the editor. Of course they built the ones that they intended to build and not for one second do I doubt that money changed hands for that deal.

As to my running for office! lol! I was for many years President and Vice President of my Condo Association, and that is as far I'll get to office around here. I created a bit of a local scandal awhile back, have reverted back to being what my kids call a hippie, so I don't think it would really work!

:rofl:

:toast:

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

4. I used to live a couple of blocks from there. It is an eclectic neighborhood.

Nearby is a big housing project, luxury high rises, low rises and walk-ups. One of the things I loved about living there was the diversity. This is just so sad and you're right about the prime real estate......

What are the odds that Ray Ramos, 58 is a Vietnam Vet??? I wonder how many more of the men that reside there are.....

[bobbolink]

7. Are there any protests of this despicable action?

This is what towns and cities are trying to do now.. keep a mix.

They are so wonderful, they are going to DESTROY the mix.

What brilliance. :sarcasm:

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

10. I haven't lived there in 25 years, although every few years I meander down into the city

and visit the old neighborhood, so I really don't know. It really is heartbreaking. What's even more heartbreaking are the homeless that don't have a roof over their head at all. I used to work in the Chrysler Building and every morning go to a great bakery in Grand Central Station and pick-up breakfast. My ex-husband and I noticed this very old homeless man. I can see him in my mind's eye right now. He was very grey and wizened. Stooped over and had a perpetual bandage over one eye. He wore a very long grey winter coat. We decided to buy him breakfast every day that we saw him. Looking back, we should have done more. We never really talked to him and in a way, what I thought at the time to be altruistic was in fact acting superior to him. Maybe if we got to know him, we could have assisted him with his plight....

:cry:

[bobbolink]

12. I'm having a hard time knowing how to respond to this....

"It really is heartbreaking."

Yes, it is, and what is getting to me, is if enough of us are finding this "heartbreaking", why aren't we organized to DO something about it?

Where is the outrage?

You see, those of us who are on the bottom, and experiencing all this, feel very invisible. Isolated and alone.

There is real speaking out on so many other issues, but NOT on HOMELESSNESS and POVERTY.

What's up with that?

What is wrong?

"Maybe if we got to know him, we could have assisted him with his plight...."

Thanks for caring. Maybe so. We are taught that homeless people are dangerous, and don't get too close. That teaching is so effective that even people who otherwise have very good hearts get scared.

On the other hand, there are NO individual solutions. Yes, befriend a person, because, take it from me, that personal caring is very important. But you alone can't make there be housing for the person you befriend. You can't make there be health care for that person. To do that, you have to come together with others.. MANY others.

Which leads me back to my question... where is the outrage? Why are there Dem groups in your area that are ACTIVE on this?

Pardon me *my* outrage, but WTF does it take????

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

13. As I said, I no longer live in the city and getting down there is quite

expensive for me. Quite frankly, I work at home and my job is almost 24/7. If I don't work, I can't pay my bills and if I can't pay my bills, people might have to start protesting for me too. I am also one of the millions that has no health insurance. I have not had a vacation in over 4 years, and that one was for only 4 days. Sorry for my blowing off steam but if my own circumstances were even a little better I would try to find out what is happening in the city with this, but right now I can't.

As to others in my area being Active about this? I live in a sprawling town where there is absolutely no cohesiveness. Most of the residents are trying to hold on to their houses right now and on to their own lives.

I don't know what else to say.......

[EFerrari]

9. The same thing is happening here. It's a death struggle, literally,

for housing vs. the developers.

And MY family is in commercial real estate. At least we've never done anything like THIS. :puke:

[bobbolink]

11. Are there any planned actions to try to neutralize this?