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Quality Inn on Queens Boulevard becomes a housing shelter, Elected officials and community blindsided

qualityInn

Aug. 23, 2016 By Christian Murray

Homeless families have been moving into a Woodside hotel in recent weeks yet the Department of Homeless Services has notified no one.

The Quality Inn, located at 53-05 Queens Boulevard, is being used as a temporary homeless shelter. In the past two months, families have arrived without the DHS informing elected officials, Community Board 2 or the public at large.

Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer said he was never formally notified of the administration’s decision to move homeless families into the hotel. It was only when he heard from a constituent that he uncovered that it was being used as a temporary shelter for the homeless.

“The administration’s handling of this has been outrageous and has been botched from the start,” Van Bramer said. “I have been livid with the administration in the way the have tried to sneak this in. It is not the way the these things should be done.”

He said the de Blasio administration didn’t tell anyone that the temporary shelter was in operation. He said that de Blasio is ultimately responsible for this.

“Whether he is making the call or not, the buck stops with the mayor and that is what the big job means,” Van Bramer said.

Van Bramer said that the Quality Inn consists of 72 rooms and more than half the units are currently occupied by homeless families. He was unable to provide a more specific number.

Van Bramer said he was assured it would not be a permanent shelter and that it would be used on a temporary basis. He said he would be monitoring it closely to ensure that the numbers of homeless residents did not grow.

“There are currently no current plans to convert the Quality Inn Woodside into a homeless shelter,” according to the DHS in a statement. “The DHS is currently renting some rooms in this commercial hotel to help meet its legal obligation to provide shelter to homeless New Yorkers who would otherwise be sleeping on the street.”

The Mayor’s office did not respond for comment.

Van Bramer said he has no plans to protest outside the Quality Inn. “There are young mothers and children who are going through tough times. We do have to show empathy.”

Although the biggest sticking point with Van Bramer was the lack of notification, he said that a homeless shelter does not belong at the location. He said that there are several shelters on Queens Boulevard.

“We need to avoid clusters of shelters and avoid overburdening our communities.”

Quality Inn Shelter Location

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email the author: news@queenspost.com

146 Comments

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jefferson

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EML

What I don’t understand is that this is supposed to be a shelter for WOMEN ONLY, but I see a lot of men in going in and out of these hotels. If you have a man with kids then he should be contributing not just us the working class. There is also a woman that’s trouble to the businesses in the neighborhood.
These homeless shelters are creating problems in this quite residential area. Housing is thru the roof in this area, so with this issue its just going to bring our neighborhood down. Meaning it will be Ghetto soon 🙁

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he who casts the first stone....

Deblasio (D’assio) hates the Irish and he also wants to give it JVB for not allowing the unaffordable housing in JVB’s back yard. so, he decided that he’d give him a homeless shelter as a gesture of how he really feels and without any warning. Not the first time D’assio has done this. He also infringed upon the Dutch Kills last year with no prior warning and gave the green light to another women’s homeless shelter in the Verve Hotel… not long after the first sign of protest about unaffordable housing in JVB’s hood.
I hope one day J.V.B. becomes mayor and gives the same kind of kindness and thought back onto D’assio’s front door. He surely deserves it.

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borntorage

at least they are not on the streets for now. would you rather families struggle and live in a disgusting shelter or have a decent place for temporary housing where they can try to get back on their feet?

FU JVB. you’re a big baby. i hope you read these comments.

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doug

While that seems fair on the face of it, long term spreading things around simply destabilizes more neighborhoods. This has repercussions in terms of tax revenue, social friction, and ultimately hurts the most the very groups people saying to be helping. Working class neighborhoods are still vulnerable to middle class flight (not just of white people BTW) once crime or QOL is perceived to be in decline. And a place like Woodside is the kind of place that could ghettoize if things aren’t handled properly.

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ron

After the completely preposterous notion of opening a hotel at that location, the operators must be thanking god right now that they can actually get some cash back on this.

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eureka

Nonsense! De Blasio bought off the City Council members in Queens when they got that ridiculous raise. We passively accept bullshit in this borough from the press and the electeds. They treat us like stupid children.

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happytrails

I am sure De blasio’s crew is working to make sure that all the homeless people over 18 have an address (the hotel) and are or become registered voters for the next mayoral election. If its a swing vote his chances are better at staying Mayor especially with people needing affordable housing or emergency shelter. Sorry homeowners/high paying renters in nice neighborhoods you’re outnumbered. He is building more affordable housing and opening up these shelters in nice neighborhoods…they are on his side.

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Angela

-happytrails In June 2016, there were 60,042 homeless people, including 14,981 homeless families with 23,213 homeless children, sleeping each night in the New York City municipal shelter system. Please factor these numbers into the voting stats of the city. Come back in future post and explain your findings using facts. Your silly conspiracy theory falls way short. “Numbers” don’t lie.

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franny

Just another day in Queens when it comes to politics. My son went off to college last week and he was greeted by Hillary supporters at his campus. It is laughable.

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John John

-Numbers I believe Angela’s post is pointing out these guys actuallyput their companies out if business and still received millions in performance bonus’. Buddy you really missed the point.

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Numbers

John John, I’m sorry I thought we were just posting random facts about TARP that have no relevance to the original topic. My bad.

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Angela

-Mike
Nine of the financial firms that were among the largest recipients of federal bailout money paid about 5,000 of their traders and bankers bonuses of more than $1 million apiece for 2008, according to a report released by Andrew M. Cuomo, the New York attorney general at the time.
Citigroup Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co. and seven other U.S. banks paid $32.6 billion in bonuses in 2008 while receiving $175 billion in taxpayer funds under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, according to a report by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
In the report, the state analyzed 2008 bonuses at nine banks that received TARP financing from the U.S. government. New York-based Citigroup and Merrill, since taken over by Bank of America Corp., received TARP funding totaling $55 billion, Cuomo said in his report.
“When the banks did well, their employees were paid well. When the banks did poorly, their employees were paid well,” Cuomo’s office said in the 22-page report. “When the banks did very poorly, they were bailed out by taxpayers and their employees were still paid well. Bonuses and overall compensation did not vary significantly as profits diminished.”
At Goldman Sachs, for example, bonuses of more than $1 million went to 953 traders and bankers, and Morgan Stanley awarded seven-figure bonuses to 428 employees. Even at weaker banks like Citigroup and Bank of America, million-dollar awards were distributed to hundreds of workers. In January 2009, financial institutions gave themselves nearly $20 billion in bonuses as the economy was faltering and the government was spending billions to bail out financial institutions.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/business/31pay.html?_r=0

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El loco

Angela:

You seem to have a lot of time on your hands. Do you work or are you a recipient of done type of government assistance program?

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Angela

El Loco That’s just it, it doesn’t take a lot of time to take down an uninformed ignorant blowhard like you. To someone as academically lacking as you it may seem like its a lot of time but it really isn’t.

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Angela

-Mike “They just hang out all day complaining they don’t get enough free stuff.” Were any of the guys hanging out:
Joseph Cassano, AIG Financial Products Executive, 1987-2008, HIS BONUS, 2008: $34 million. 2008 the year of the financial collapse, the year Cassano literally put AIG out of business if it weren’t for TARP.
Vikram Pandit, Citigroup CEO, 2007-present
HIS HAUL, 2008: $10.8 million. 2008 the year of the financial collapse, the year Pandt help put Citigroup out of business if it weren’t for TARP.
Robert Rubin, Citigroup Board of Directors, 1999-2009
HIS HAUL, 1999-2009: $124 million. 2008 the year of the financial collpse, the year Rubin help put Citigroup out of business if it weren’t for TARP.
Ken Lewis, Bank of America CEO and President, 2001-2009
HIS HAUL, 2008: $10 million. 2008 the year of the year of the financial collapse, the year Lewis help put BOA out of business if it weren’t for TARP.
Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase CEO and President, 2005-present
HIS HAUL, 2008: $19.7 million. 2008 the year of the year of the financial collapse.
Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs CEO and Chairman, 2006-present
HIS HAUL, 2008: $42.9 million. 2008 the year of the year of the financial collapse.
John G. Stumpf, Wells Fargo CEO, 2007-present
HIS HAUL, 2008: $13.8 million. 2008 the year of the year of the financial collapse.
John J. Mack, Morgan Stanley CEO, 2005-2009, and Chairman, 2005-present
HIS HAUL, 2008: $1.2 million. 2008 the year of the year of the financial collapse.
John Thain, Merrill Lynch CEO, 2007-2009
HIS HAUL, 2008: $83.1 million. 2008 the year of the year of the financial collapse. All these firms should have all gone out of business in 2008.
The “free stuff” the people at the Welfare dump kinda pales to the “free stuff” these guys got. As you can see by my posts, I am no fan of the Welfare Hotel, its owner, its clientele or Diblasio. Let me guess you’re a graduate of trump university and a big Fox News viewer. I also don’t believe you heard these people complaining about their free stuff. You’re too much of a coward to get that close.

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Mike

It is amazing that one of the draw’s of this hotel in it’s existence as a viable travel destination for paying customers is it’s proximity to the #7 train. From Times Sq to Main St the entrances are literally right up the corner. It’s disgusting that most of the clientele drive the latest cars, have the latest cell phones, and seem to be viable working types. Not one of them ever seems to journey up the block to take the train and seek work. They just hang out all day complaining they don’t get enough free stuff. C’mon this is bullshit!!!

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Anonymous

I have a idea why don’t we allow more illegals and refugees into the country, wait that’s exactly what Crooked Hillary is going to do.

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Sean

Nobody is more crooked than Donald. That’s why he won’t release his tax returns and don’t forget the millions he and organization bilked the tax payers out of from the Grand Hyatt deal. Don’t forget trump university. You’re a gullible Fox News watching fool.

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Michelle P.

http://www1.nyc.gov/assets/home/downloads/pdf/reports/2016/90-day-homeless-services-review.pdf

This is a link to the Homeless Services Review stating that hotels will cease to be used as homeless shelters.

Side note: It is against housing code to have a family living in a room with no kitchen. Families living in the hotel supposedly do not have access to hotel shampoo/soap (as in regular hotel rooms), no room cleaning service, and no continental breakfast. In addition, they do not have access to free train/bus passes or food stamps, as they would in city shelters.

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Angela

Thank you Michelle P. This just confirms my point about the welfare hotel model being a scam designed to make the already wealthy owners of these places even more wealthy.. Joe, Messer, Scoler, Andrew, El Loco and the other uninformed people posting here, does this arrangement sound like the tax payer or the welfare hotel “victim” is getting there $4,830 worth a month for these rooms? $4,830 cost provided by Homeless Services Commissioner official Gilbert Taylor.

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Jimmy Van Pooch

Why are you people prattling on about this, when there are much more important things to worry about! Like the attack on the transgender person that’s being considered as a hate crime. That unfortunate event warrants a rally organized by our Council representative (well in advance of the facts being ascertained, like may be this was a lover’s quarrel), but illegally dumping a homeless shelter in our community, which almost certainly will be a fixture for years to come, merits only a sense of feeling “livid” by said Council representative and a commitment by him to “monitoring”. Get your priorities in order folks, anything that possibly offends the gay community trumps anything else that’s going on in the community!

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Silent majority

@ Jimmy Van Pooch since you brought it up. What was she doing at 6am walking in an area that is notorious for transgender prostitution? By no means am I saying this was deserved. It was definitely a hate crime and was done solely because the individual was gay, but someone told me once you don’t have to look for trouble it will find you.

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Floppy Rooster

Finally the Post admits this has happened! Let’s help the homeless but not only in Sunnyside. Park Avenue and SoHo deserve their share.

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Anonymous

Finally the Post reports it… It was denounced in comments for weeks. Maybe we have had our side of homeless shelters for now. Can this stop here?

Open the next ones in SoHo and on Park Ave. and help those people recover thrir lives.

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Joe

So Angela the mayor has made you Commissioner of Homeless Services. What’s your first act? Shooting them is not an option.

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Is there any value to Joes post

Joe, What’s your solution? At least Angela offered up indisputable fact and obvious references from experience and history in the formation of her opinion.

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Joe

Humane facilities with services to help them with their problems. Nobody was born asking to be poor and homeless. It benefits no one in society Angela or homeless people to see these people homeless and with problems. Angela is a well known bigot.

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Angela

-Joe please dispute the facts made in my posts instead of calling me names. 1-What is being done differently with this homeless welfare hotel social and business model then the model used in the 1970’s & 80’s?
2- Are you saying there is no crime associated with these institutions? Then you need to take your crusade to the NYPD and NY Press.
3- $4,000.00 a month per unit couldn’t be used to refurbish abandoned and housing units in need of rehabilitation?? These are bigoted points? You’re an imbecile who is only advocating proven failed policies of the past and out front cheering on the repeating the mistakes of the past. Congratulations you meet the very definition of fool. Now I see why you resorted to name calling instead of discussing the details of my posts. Have a good day Einstein.

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Messer

-Angela. From the articles and facts, this this not yet a welfare hotel, and sounds like temporary housing to fill a stopgap in DHS legal housing requirements. Calm down just a bit.

No one has said crime is not more frequent in areas with shelters or homeless congregations. Some have just asked that we not lose sight of compassion for these people. Others have mainly asked for your solutions, rather than just restating that the ’70s were bad and crime is bad. Where will these people go, assuming that each neighborhood also has outspoken NIMBY’ers.

Last, where did the $3,700 number come from that has been mentioned, and why did you just up it to $4,000? Also, why in the world would you think that money from one source can just do other things? To whose benefit would refurbishing old housing be? If DHS is paying this to a hotel as a stopgap, its likely the cost-effective solution, as perhaps rehabbing and staffing a shelter might be multiples more per month. Its not always a government conspiracy. Sometimes its just government doing its best, or at least a bit of incompetence.

For being someone so affronted by name-calling, you’re fairly rude. And let’s be honest, saying that the model of the ’80s failed doesn’t make you more compassionate or less of a bigot. I think we all know what’s what when you post.

Angela

-Messer Emergency shelter at an average cost of $4,830 a month for each one, Homeless Services Commissioner official Gilbert Taylor said. At a City Council hearing Gilbert Taylor said that the short-term use of hotel rooms has increased from two years ago. http://nypost.com/2015/12/10/each-homeless-person-with-hotel-housing-costs-the-city-5k-a-month/
Nothing I said is pulled out of thin air. Do your own research your posts have more speculation than verifiable fact. I saw the $3,700 number in someone else’s post on this stream just like you did. I knew the $4K from other articles in NY Times NY Daily News now you got me to use a reliable source pushing it closer to $5K. You obviously don’t have as much invested in this neighborhood as some of us. I live in this neighborhood 62 years and am 3rd generation Woodside/ Sunnyside. We are 7th generation NYC and trace our arrival in NYC to the great potato famine. Don’t tell me to calm down I know how city politics work, spend and can harm entire communities, I’ve lived it. You sound naive and like a bit of a know it all only you lack facts and ask more questions than you answer. You need to do a little more tuning in and a little less broadcasting.

Mac

@Messer Wow you’re really trying to paint Angela as something she is not, all because she has, in my opinion, effectively shot down all of your weak arguments. Shame on you. Just stick to the discussion.

El loco

Can’t we just live one another. There is no hope for older, bitter cold hearted people like Angela but maybe others can see the light and have sympathy for these people down on their luck. No one was born wanting to be homeless. Come on give it a try.

Reachel

You sound ignorant! Not all people go into shelters without the willingness of changing their lives. Some people families die. Some people loose their jobs. Some people have families and have no choice but to turn into a shelter to help them get back on their feet. I know people who have done this in the past and are now nurses with rent to own homes now.. Or people who are living a better quality of life saving their money to own a home of their own future wise. So who are you to judge all people that go into shelters ? When some ignorant people are affiliated with drugs are crime. Crime is everywhere you can’t escape it.. You want to make communities less better in crime rates, get up and do something about it instead of posting your ignorant thoughts on the internet! Go get involved in your neighborhood and contribute knowledge or better resources to help crime rates within the community!

Mac

Yes, Joe “nobody was born asking to be poor and homeless”. This still does not justify the spending of close to $5,000 on a per month to house people. Do you work for the Welfare Hotel owners. That’s just for the room. Read Michelle P’s post below. No kitchen, no food, no social worker assistance, transportation or job training. Yes lets just accept this massive fraud and rip off because people are in a situation they didn’t ask for. What type of logic do you subscribe to? You’re one warp individual.

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John Doe

NYC is too expensive for most people and if you’re homeless you’re hopeless. Why not just bus these families to less expensive parts of the country? Detroit, Newark, upstate NY, Trenton, the south. Places where they might have a chance to survive. Its just too expensive here, PERIOD.

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Me

And let those politicians and hotels make so much money? Nonsense! Our politians are obviously best at negotiationg great rates, next time you need a hotel room, skip priceline or expedia, call De Blasio, he’ll get you a great deal in a hotel. /s

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Sir Walter Raleigh

This does not concern me! I live in the Gardens away from the RIFF RAFF. I say house them there no skin off my nose.

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Silent majority

Just wait until the Phipps project is up and running your precious Garden sanctuary will turn in to a third world mecca with all the “affordable” houses recipients.Ever go down 48th st and Northern blvd? Get use it Jimmy oh I mean Walter.

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Sir Walter Raleigh

I grew up in the South Bronx! unlike you I do not fear the Brown people you classless RACIST piece of Basura.

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Mikeyo O

Total Bullshit….money that is spent on one room for a month is enough to rent nice house $3,700.00 × 37 rooms …politicians and their benefactors are making millions off hard working taxpayers. And laughing all the way to bank

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Anonymous

The “hotel” owners are pretty cynical if you ask me. They are not here to do anything good. In fact we are rewarding them for building a hotel they don’t know how to make a profit on! If they can’t make a profit, sell it. Let better business people run it as a reasonably priced shelter for some of the thousands of people this economy has made mincemeat of.

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Hello

Will the 108 precinct now offer more cops and patrol on the street? I doubt it.
The dynamics of the neighborhood is changing. Not for the better.

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Phil

Christian–great piece, excellent reporting. Thank you!

This neighborhood is sick of being the city’s whipping boy. Van Bramer, if you won’t do anything about it vis a vis the city, we’ll be forced to vote in someone who will. You’ve been inept and/or colluding with every project to screw the neighborhood over!

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Roxy

The hotel already has a reputation for “hot sheets” and hookers, so what’s the problem? This could actually help people who are desperately in need of shelter.

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Hector G

-Roxy Have you read up on the history of welfare hotels and why there use was curtailed and even discontinued by most cities in the US? Do yourself a service and research the topic before you start praising it. Knowledge is power.

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Sunnysider

@roxy Most people don’t view sex between two consenting adults as “bad”. Grow up..

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Silent majority

I surely hope so but there is no mention of someones running against him. Whoever it is has got to be better then this clown.

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mRKC

Half the commentators here laughed at me when I warned people about this. The new “motel” beside theYMCA will be the exact same thing. The chickens Are coming home to roost

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Sean

Martin You’re a Fox News Watching imbecile. Republican policies like low wage, globalization, tax cuts for the rich and education cuts all help fuel and create this problem and other problems just like it.

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Anonymous

this is JVB territory also why haven’t the constitutents known about this hotel either —

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D Gambs

It’s nice to know my neighbors are so compassionate.

The headline for this article is overly sensationalist. “Blindsided”? You’re blindsided when you get a piece of horrifically bad news out of nowhere.

This article is actually GOOD NEWS. People who had no place to live now have a place to live, though most likely temporarily. The city needs to do more to address homelessness, but I don’t see how providing people with a place to live is bad for any neighborhood.

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Me

I rather have my tax dollars go to schools, parks, roads and safety of our neighborhood, that’s the blindsided part. I would really love to see how much we/you are paying for these “homeless shelter” hotel rooms.

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Anstasia

I know someone inside of that shelter and she works 2 jobs and take care of her daughter ….. So everyone that is in a shulter is not lazy ……thank you ppl

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Styn

D Gambs, how about you come spend a few hours outside hotel and then preach to me? See the (mostly) mothers with multiple children loitering in front of private residential homes picnicing on those homes front steps, leaning on those homes fences drinking coffee, smoking under those homes windows. Not to mention “hanging-out” all hours of the night in the hotel’s parking lot loudly covorting with the other homeless families. How would you like all that going on next to you or across the street from you? Well, D Gambs?

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El loco

Take your anger out on the inept government that can’t handle the problem not helpless people.

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John John

El loco who is more inept, people who breed like flies and can’t provide the bare essentials for themselves and their families or the gov’t? It cost money for govt to function properly. You can’t starve the govt of revenue and expect it function properly, you inept Fox watching fool.

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El loco

You are ignorant. Not every homeless person is a drug dealer, prostitute or psychopath. There are people who can’t make it or are effected by illness. Open your mind instead of being an ignorant bigot. People who are committing crimes need to be dealt with within our legal system, people who need help should be helped!

John John

-El Loco Learn to read fool. Go back and re-read my post. I certainly know not all homeless are drug dealers….Drug dealers can financially provide…Angela has some great posts regarding family. The majority of my posts on this topic are more in line with the incredible and wasteful costs involved with these facilities not the people in “need” of some of the services these costly facilities provide. You sound like you have a bit of an inferiority complex.

John John

el loco the handout king..Stop wasting tax paying citizens time you disgusting beggar.

Angela

I think we should just ship homeless people off somewhere. They are never going to have their own homes anyway. Out of sight out of mind. Who needs them?

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Angela

-fake Angela You can’t debate me “the original” Angela on the facts so you need to hijack my handle. I’m sure you’re stupid enough to think you won the debate. Christian Murray if you truly want to have a top notch blog that sparks honest and open discussion then you need to assign unique ‘handles’ preventing such hijackings and harming the discussion on your blog.

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Angela

I’m the real Angela. The other is a bleeding heart liberal. I’m the prettier one. Do you think that you’re the only Angela in Sunnyside?

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Sean

If somebody is using a familiar handle normally used by you on a forum and you decide to use the same handke then you should denote your handle as such. It’s common courtesy and internet etiquette. You sound like an ignorant fox watching imbicile.

MS. MARTINEZ

It’s because of people like you angela the world is the way it is!

I pray you never end up homeless,but you never know one day some one might come and rob you of your identity, take away your money, ruin your credit score and now you can’t afford a home, don’t even think your getting an appapartment, cause what they require is a credit score of 680 and better!

So don’t judge! All homeless people are not the same, not all are families have families who will help, some actually don’t have families, you think if home less families had other alternatives that they wouldn’t use, them I don’t know anyone who is trying on purpose to go live in the shelter system, for many it’s there only choise!

So I hope they open one right next door to your house!

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Angela

-El loco Yes, these “racists” posting here have provided indisputable facts, documentation and links regarding crime at these facilities, historical and personal experiences contact and exposure to these facilities and pointed out the fact that these institutions do nothing but make already wealthy hotel owners even more wealthy while destroying neighborhoods and the lives of those stuck in the shelter system. We have already been through this scam in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat the mistakes of history. You’re one ignorant man with a two dimensional take on the world. Move out of your parents garage loser. Consider this a wake up call from a property owning long time resident of the area who happens to be a true Latina.

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Messer

-Angela. I understand the sentiment fully. There are risks and issues that come with aid for those is need. However, the issues with NIMBY mentalities come down to the question of “If not Here, then Where?” Just as Sunnyside/Woodside residents may not want this shelter/temporary in their community, other communities may not either. Something’s gotta give. We can’t complain about homeless people on our streets and under our train, and then also complain about them off the streets in shelters.

In a perfect world no one would be homeless, but until then these people are human beings and need to sleep somewhere – hopefully somewhere out of the elements.

What is your solution? Where do they go? If they dont have friends and family as good as you to take them in (perhaps an abused woman on the run, or a disabled veteran with no family and mental health issues) what do they do? Does the city help or not?

A lot of tough talk, but short on solutions. Saying “they should get help from friends” is just as effective as saying “they should never have become homeless”.

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doc

If they have “mental health issues” they don’t belong in a hotel room in a residential area. As far as where they should go, put them in Gracie Mansion for all I care but don’t dump them on us.

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Anonymous

-Doc. Thats useful. Saying “I don’t care where, just not here” is the quickest way to keep whatever awful lot you have. You don’t think that LIC or Jackson Heights has the another outspoken “doc” just like you arguing the same tired shit? Wherever homeless people reside, whether in a shelter, a motel or on the street, the local residents won’t like it. What makes you so special that they will listen to you more than the same guy in Forest Hills?

Demanding results without well thought out alternatives adds nothing (and makes you look a bit foolish).

Angela

-Messer 60K homeless individuals in June 2016,15K of the people counted in this number provided by NYC, make up homeless “families”. Mentally sick people in a welfare hotel is a threat to themselves, the staff and other residents of the hotel. Mentally il people need to be in a supervised enviornment not a welfare hotel. $3,500 a month can go towards the rehabilitation of abandoned or blighted properties which can be found throughout the city. We have been down this road before in the 1970’s and 80’s welfare hotels are dangerous crime riddled and expensive so called solutions. They are a proven failed policy which only serves to make a handful of absent landlords and hotel owners very wealthy. I am old enough to remember the horrible crimes at such places as the Prince George Hotel, the Hotel Bryant and Strand Hotel just to name a few. The practice of warehousing people in these dangerous and very expensive places were an indisputable failure the first time around. What makes you think they will work this time? To expect a different result is just madness.

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Messer

-Angela. I don’t expect them to work this time around, nor do I argue of going back to that failed model of the ’70s and ’80s. I only point out that they are people, who sleep, and will sleep somewhere, and if not in this hotel it will be on your sidewalk unless there is an alternative available.

You mentioned a supervised environment – that would cost more than $3,500 per month to operate a proper mental health facility. Have you petitioned JVB for an increase to your taxes to help shoulder that burden?

Solutions must be provided, and proper solutions take money. Saying “No” to the temporary hotel is OK, if you advocate a proper supervised shelter, with the increased costs that will bring. Saying “No” to hotels and shelters while also saying “No” to taxpayer assistance ends up at a dead end, and when that happens you’ll get what they give us, regardless of your input.

Hmmm..

Well I guess we shouldn’t be surprised or have to look far for explanations when nearby Joe Sabba park on Queens Blvd and John Downing Park on 43rd ave both become Skid row and mobbed with vagrants and/or drunks. Its hilarious all the silly invective and chatter around the proposed Phipps development as not suitable for Sunnyside Gardens but this 800 lb hum-dinger just pops right in as a done deal with nary a word said. Still I suspect they won’t be taking the subway so no need to worry about a more crowded rush hour commute.

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Tangerone

So much hostility toward people who are homeless. The administration is facing record numbers of homeless people and everyone complains about people sleeping on the street or subway. So the other poster is right about the cost to taxpayers for so-called shelters. There are more sustainable options.

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Tori

Maybe there is so many homeless due to crazy rent prices in NYC. No one can afford to live here

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Angela

@tori Then you move to place that is more affordable. People do it everyday. I want to live on Central Park South but I don’t camp out there then demand the city create a “system” and put me and my family up there..We already have a system in place for housing and it’s called a free market economy. We don’t need to add a parallel system that has been proven to undermine the existing system in place that has actually created the desirable housing markets that the homeless want to live in.

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el loco

you’re logic is idiotic. Maybe there are people who can barely afford the cheapest apartments. Maybe people are hit with heavy medical bills. Your blaming all homeless people for all their problems is heartless and ignorant. Now i guess you will come back with a long post with all kinds of statistics and all your racist friends will hit the like button. Go vote for Donald Trump.

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Angela

el loco, You’re the one with the “idiotic logic. Sentence 1-“Maybe there are people who can barely afford the cheapest apartments.” Answer number 1- Move to a neighborhood where you can afford “the cheapest apartment”. That is exactly why my family moved from Manhattan to Sunnyside in the 1950’s.
Sentence 2- ” Maybe people are hit with heavy medical bills.” Answer 2- My mother and step father were hit with medical bills near $750K within 3 years of each other and funeral costs. That is where the rest of the family stepped up and covered expenses like nurses, home attendants, food, rent, utilities and medicine just to name a few. Sentence 3- “Your blaming all homeless people for all their problems is heartless and ignorant.” Answer 3- This doesn’t even deserve a response. Provide the post that blames all “homeless” people for all their problems. Sentence 4-“Now i guess you will come back with a long post with all kinds of statistics” Answer 4- This sentence just proves you’re an ignorant fool who “feels” facts and statistics have no place in a discussion. I may add go back and re-read my posts you imbecile and you’ll come across my post proclaiming and proudly I may add, I am a life long Democrat. I am also Latina and don’t believe you are a true Latino because true Latinos take care of our own and don’t look for over $4,830 a month (cost provided by Homeless Services Commissioner official Gilbert Taylor.) for a small hotel room. What does your apartment cost? Welfare hotels are a proven scam plain and simple. Eat those facts you ignorant loser. Its mentalities like yours that give way to candidates like Donald Trump only you’re too ignorant to see it.

Get Real

Well did anyone really think their clientele was going to be any different from the other sleazy motels on that stretch off the commercial strip beyond 50th St? Its somewhat of a wasteland (with some notable exceptions like the Big 6) from there to the 70s with a graveyard on one side and prostitution common in the motels along there. No more hotels should be built out that way. Say what u want for Airbnb..at least they give competitive options to hotels and don’t provide the politicians a dumping ground for unfortunate cases like these.

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John Doe

Sterilize the homeless so they can’t breed! These people have no life skills and should not be reproducing!

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Jimmy Van Jackass

Jimmy didn’t know cause nobody told him! That’s about as good as Hillary saying she didn’t know anything about her emails.
This guy expects everyone to do his job for him but he has no problem taking a salary increase right.
He’s the same twit that has a meeting on how to spend the city’s millions he’s supposedly in charge of but he didn’t get the memo on another homeless shelter.
But he’s the jerkoff having rally’s to shut down clubs and try to condem someone’s business but he won’t rally on a homeless shelter adding crime and dirtbags to the parks and streets at night.
Maybe he should let them stay at his house for a couple months than if it’s no big deal.
Next year people don’t elect this idiot in again !!!!!!!!!
Please please please please.
He blames Deblasio but it’s his territory and his responsibility and he’s getting paid over $160,000 for a job he obviously cannot do.
He’s weak and in capable and makes excuses for what he’s getting paid to do.
He’s the reason this neighborhood has the problems it has.

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Tooties tooters

Jimmys mom is very upset with you
You happen to he correct
Our hood is being overrun but keep jimmys street ok
Nothing to see let’s move on

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Anonymous

Jimmy Van Bramer’s term is up in 2017 and he can’t run again — thank you — maybe someone with brains will step in and not be bought like he has been for years ever since he has been in office —

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Me

Being a homeless person is pretty bad, being a homeless family is even worse, but do they really have to live in hotels in the middle of place like Sunnyside?
How much is government paying these hotels, or let me correct that, how much are WE tax-payers paying for these hotel rooms? Outrageous prices, you bet. I’d like to see books opened and De Blasio investigated or audited for these under the suspicion of clear connection between hotel owners and Mayor’s office. This is not fair for us hard working people who save for years, finally afford to buy an apartment or house in the neighborhood only to have a hotel erected and then turned into a homeless shelter with all sort of persons with no prospect or responsibility for their actions. Obviously not all of them are same, but when you dump homeless people with no buying power in the middle of a neighborhood where people walk around with their nice clothes, expensive cups of coffee on hand, kids dressed nicely, how do you think those homeless families will act?

Can someone create a petition or draft a letter that we can use as template and send to Van Bramer’s office as well as Mayor’s office. They can’t be doing this without checking with the community?

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Andrew

This is exactly the attitude that makes me cringe. “Can’t someone else do something..”

Your lack of help and narrow response leaves me to believe you truely don’t give a crap. You just want life to be easy and simple. Guess what, it’s not. Not for you, not for me, not for us, and not for them.

Life is hard and we can best judge ourselves when life is tough. Making things work when things look bleak is a true showing of a citizen. When things are easy looking to help another person is the true meaning community.

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Me

Obviously I am not the best writer to draft up a proper petition for this, this is why I asked if someone could create that and we can sign it. These people are not part of the community, if they were homeless because of a fire/flood etc, by all means, welcome. The problem here is not that we are getting homeless families in our neighborhood, but buildings are being built for this purpose and nobody says anything before they decide to pay for hotel rooms with the tax money.

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Messer

-Me. I understand the sentiment fully. There are risks and issues that come with aid for those is need. However, the issues with NIMBY mentalities come down to the question of “If not Here, then Where?” Just as Sunnyside/Woodside residents may not want this shelter/temporary in their community, other communities may not either. Something’s gotta give. We can’t complain about homeless people on our streets and under our train, and then also complain about them off the streets in shelters.

In a perfect world no one would be homeless, but until then these people are human beings and need to sleep somewhere – hopefully somewhere out of the elements.

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O.J. for breakfast AND president

relax people, its temporary. most of them will probably get mowed down on queens blvd anyway. they still gonna have the cheerio dispenser & waffle maker for breakfast?

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A.Bundy

your newly bought co-op or condo just dropped in value. question is, who can you sue to make up the difference? the hotel owner or the administration or both?

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Deniz

I’d been trying to get a reservation for a room here for my father when he was to come into town – I even personally walked over, when the lobby attendant said that they had a big group of people coming in. There was absolutely no mention that this was going to be a homeless shelter. I’m all for supporting those in need, but I don’t like to have whole conversations with people I’m trying to do business with when they’ve clearly been instructed not to be completely forthright. Just awful.

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Anon

I believe the purpose of these ‘hotels’ that began arriving several years ago is to be transformed into shelters. Why? So that the neighborhood begins emptying when the long time residents become frightened and leave. This leads to buildings being sold at bargain basement prices to developers who assault the community further with uninspired, overpriced dwellings. It’s been going on forever with the undeclared consent of our local backstabbers, er politicos who harbor the same interests as the developers. Look out folks we are on the fast track to…wherever we end up because we can no longer afford our own neighborhood.

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anonymous mark 2

Last I heard a new “hotel” 12 stories tall is set to go up right next to the YMCA on Queens Blvd. Any takers on how long before it becomes another welfare hotel?

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Angela

The individuals and families moving into these homeless shelters are the worst of the worst, their own families won’t even help them out by laying down an air mattress or two. My husband lost his job and we were burned out of our apartment, during the financial crisis in the 70’s and we doubled up with his sister for six months until we got back on our feet and there were 5 of us in my family alone. You do for family!! Give it some thought these people’s very families won’t even help them and by there very behavior you will see why. Remember the neighborly slobs getting off the buses at the old Pan American Hotel holding up signs telling the local residents to go back to China. The incident took place about a week before the incident where one of the hotel residents took a cab from Washington Heights to the old Pan American Hotel and wanted to exchange a sexual favor to cover the fare but wanted to keep her kids in the car and ended up in a fight with the cab driver. These people are more trouble than they’re worth and they are not from this area to begin with.

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Former Sunnyside resident

Not everyone has family to turn too..
Did you think about that? You can’t necessarily say that all of those people have someone living and able who is simply turning a blind eye unto the situation. I was homeless with a child. I didn’t feel it was appropriate to turn to my demented mother for help. Im on my feet now but, it took time… without family help. Have some compassion.

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Angela

-Former Sunnyside Resident In June 2016, there were 60,042 homeless people, including 14,981 homeless families with 23,213 homeless children, sleeping each night in the New York City municipal shelter system. Families comprise just over three-quarters of the homeless shelter population. Are you saying none of these people have no families to turn to?? Are you for real?Then again your mentality is to make what should be, and at one time was a family matter, into a public matter and thus by the shear volume of people a public crisis..Shame on you…Maybe you and those like minded should have some compassion to the hard working paying citizens who have invested time money and entire lives in these communities. Go read the crime statistics related to welfare hotels…

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Emily

@former Sunnyside resident
The Rodeway Inn on the Upper West Side

A fleabag hotel near Central Park has become the center of an Upper West Side crime wave, neighbors say.

Since 2006, there have been a murder, three robberies, four felony assaults, 13 burglaries, 23 grand larcenies and two auto thefts on the tree-lined block of West 71st Street between the park and Columbus Avenue, according to a crime-stat analysis done for The Post by Onboard Informatics.

Most neighbors blame the 12-story, 92-room Rodeway Inn at 31 W. 71st Street — a former welfare hotel with $129 rooms.

Its recent rap sheet includes:

A March 16 armed robbery in which three masked gunmen stormed the hotel at about 8:20 a.m., pistol-whipped three workers and swiped thousands of dollars in cash from the safe, which the manager opened. Police sources told The Post it was an “inside job.”
A Dec. 30 rape in which ex-con Farhan Khan, 27, allegedly sodomized a 35-year-old stranger in the hotel while holding a knife to her throat and sneering, “Today is the day you’re going to die.”
A June 9, 2015, homicide in which the body of Paul Dawson, 41, of Asbury Park, NJ, was found covered in plastic wrap after an apparent S&M session gone bad.
Neighbors told The Post of drunken fights, battles over parking spots, suspicious characters and constant police activity.

http://nypost.com/2016/03/27/the-hotel-thats-become-a-hotbed-for-crime/

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Scoler

Your list of extreme examples is impressive but irrelevant. If there are NYers who are homeless, we have to do something about it. The majority of homeless people are not violent or criminal, so relax and take your nonsense elsewhere.

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David

-Scoler Your reading comprehension skills are not quite so impressive but relevant. That list is not Emily’s list but one extracted from a NY Post (not the greatest source I know) article disseminating Onboard Informatics data.

Barbara T

-former resident Welfare hotels are scams as proven by studies and the backlash to the welfare hotel system in the 70’s and the 80’s. The only one who benefit from welfare hotels are the owners of the hotels who make thousands monthly off each occupant. They charge more than four star resorts. The tax payers pay hundreds of millions to warehouse people in hotel rooms not homes. It’s a scam perpetrated on the tax paying public, the homeless and gross misappropriation of funds. The public can get way more bang for their money in so many other practices of addressing a homeless problem than making already very wealthy hotel owners even more wealthy and without ever resolving the homeless issue to begin with.

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Anonymous visitor

“The individuals and families moving into these homeless shelters are the worst of the worst, their own families won’t even help them out by laying down an air mattress or two”

Or, you know, maybe the homeless are trying to escape from abusive unstable situations. Perhaps they have been disowned by their loving families for lifestyle choices…there are plenty of reasons people become homeless, and not always because they are “the worst of the worst”

You want to see the worst of the worst? go take a look in the mirror, and see an unsympathetic judgmental callous person. Tell me who’s more trouble than they’re worth now…

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Angela

Do you really believe the opinion of someone who is too much of a coward to post their name really matters to me? I know plenty of people who were in situations like the ones out lined in your post. Those situations are nothing new. Other relatives stepped up, when other relatives couldn’t or wouldn’t then friends, neighbors and acquaintances or even co workers stepped up. I have on two separate occasions put up neighbors who were put out for so called “life style choices” you spoke of. Back in our day we didn’t need to create bloated government bureaucracy to take care of our own we did it ourselves and didn’t make welfare hotel owners millions or destroy neighborhoods and peoples investments to get the job done either. Which one of the fat slob were you holding up signs telling Chinese American home owners at the Pan American Hotel, to go back to China? It’s very easy to be charitable at someone else’s expense. You should be the one who takes a good long look in the mirror.

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NoEatDog

Quite frankly, I wish the Chinese and the fat slobs would both leave Queens. Maybe China can take them both. Please!

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Rocky

-Anon Vis. I don’t know when exactly Angela’s compassion about ware housing people in welfare hotels was lost but I can tell you when how and where I lost mine. When 1985. Where: the Prince George welfare hotel in Manhattan. How: after taking a part time job senior year in high school and first two years of college. After 12 stabbings, 5 reported rapes (2 brutally beaten) and untold number of assaults (one of those assaults involving a co worker having a mayonnaise jar grinded into his face). Until you know what you’re speaking of please keep your uninformed opinion to yourself. Take this advice from a person who actually lived it.

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El loco

You are such a warm hearted person. Are you the Sunnyside chapter president of the Donald Trump fan club. You are a bitter old woman.

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Angela

-El loco Learn to address your post you lazy low information low wage and low IQ peasant. If your ignorant most is meant for me, I am a proud life long Democrat.

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El loco

Can you please have someone translate your post into English. I guess you were out the day in 7 th grade they taught English or maybe you didn’t get that far.

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Joe at the Berkley

These hotel owners are building these hotels for the sole purpose of becoming welfare hotels and the guaranteed income stream of housing the homeless from the misappropriation of tax payer funds by the Deblasio administration. The laws governing these hotels and where they are being built must be addressed before entire neighborhoods are destroyed.

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Sunnyside_Lady

Sole purpose of becoming welfare hotels? These hotels have been there for 30+ years at least.

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Joe at the Berkley

The owners of these welfare hotels must be publicly named and their homes in Long Island, Westchester and Northern New Jersey picketed, just like we did back in the 1980’s. That put an end of this failed practice back then and it will work this time too.

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E. Manalac

How can d Blazero and his administration not notify the councilman, is it because he knows there will be resistance!

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