Shelter that Drew Ire Working with CB 10 by Anna Gustafson - Queens Chronicle

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Officials at a South Ozone Park homeless shelter have been working with area residents to ensure their concerns about safety are heeded after the Skyway Family Center transitioned from hosting families to solely adult males, Community Board 10 members said.

“They have rearranged their security guard schedules so they mesh with the schedule of the nearby school,” CB 10 Chairwoman Betty Braton said at the board’s meeting last Thursday.

Residents have been worried that security guards at the shelter located at 132-10 South Conduit Ave. would change shifts at the same time as PS 124’s dismissal time, potentially leaving the men unguarded at a time when many children were around the area.

Braton said there have been no problems reported between the men at the shelter and the students. Still, Councilman Ruben Wills (D-South Ozone Park) said the shelter’s close proximity to the school is worrisome.

“They have five registered sex offenders in a shelter a block away from a school,” Wills said.

After the community voiced concerns about the lack of security guards, shelter officials changed the schedules so there are always guards on duty when school is in session and during dismissal.

“They also said they will provide an outdoors space for residents so they don’t have to go into the neighborhood to hang out,” Braton said.

Community residents and legislators, particularly Wills, were irate after the city reclassified the shelter as a place only for adult males without seeking input from the board, the school or area residents.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeless Services said the move was necessary to accommodate an increase in the number of single males seeking spots at city shelters.

New and Notes from NYC Council Member Ruben Wills - Council District 38

COUNCIL MEMBERS RUBEN WILLS AND LEROY COMRIE JOIN NON-PROFIT HOUSING ORGANIZATIONS TO ANNOUNCE HOMEOWNER PRESERVATION EVENTS

DISTRICT-WIDE EVENTS WILL HELP RESIDENTS BETTER NEGOTIATE THROUGH MORTGAGE DELINQUENCY

Council Member Ruben Wills and City Council Deputy Majority Leader Leroy Comrie join advocates from the Center for New York City Neighborhoods, CHANGER, Inc., and residents to announce two upcoming homeowner preservation seminars on Saturday, April 16 in the 28th district. Free services and homeowner access will be available on Saturday, April 23 at the 4th Rise Up & Stay Put! Home Rescue Fair at York College. (Photo credit: Office of Council Member Ruben Wills)

Council Member Ruben Wills and City Council Deputy Majority Leader Leroy Comrie, were joined today by Mike Hickey, Executive Director for the Center for New York City Neighborhoods (CNYCN); Yeneika Puran, Executive Director of CHANGER, Inc.; Connect Queens Campaign Coordinator, Rick Echevarria, and residents to announce two upcoming homeowner preservation events in the 28^th district that are designed to assist residents at risk of losing their homes to foreclosure or mortgage delinquency, as well as a homeowner rescue fair at York College to connect homeowners with services and information.

On Saturday, April 16, from 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. at New Haven Ministries in Richmond Hill, and again from 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. at Praise Tabernacle in Jamaica, homeownership preservation events will take place to educate residents about successful strategies and negotiations through mortgage delinquency.

“While the country has shifted its attention to other pressing matters, the neighborhoods that I represent are still struggling with escalating foreclosures, bad mortgage modifications and greedy predatory lenders,” said Wills. “The foreclosure epidemic in Southeast Queens threatens to upset our efforts to improve our quality of life and our chances of owning a piece of the American dream. I am determined to ensure that struggling homeowners in Southeast Queens are educated and no longer vulnerable consumers that continue to lose their wealth as a result of gluttonous lending institutions.”

“I want to encourage Queens homeowners who find themselves in danger of foreclosure to attend the Home Rescue Fair on April 23,” stated New York City Council Deputy Majority Leader Leroy Comrie. “I am proud to join my colleague, Council Member Wills, in continuously raising awareness about this issue. The Southeast Queens community has been disproportionately affected by the foreclosure crisis, due to the increasing number of defaults on subprime mortgages that require homeowners to use a higher ratio of their income. Jamaica, Hollis, St. Albans, Woodhaven, Richmond Hill and Ozone Park- primarily communities of color –are consistently among the top neighborhoods in New York City leading in new foreclosure actions and foreclosure auctions. My office has partnered with organizations like the Center for New York City Neighborhoods, Queens Legal Services and Neighborhood Housing Services of Jamaica to offer free foreclosure counseling in community-wide events and in my district office every Friday afternoon. No one should suffer in silence as they lose their home when there is free assistance available.”

“We recognize Council Member Wills as a local leader who has invested his talent and passion to fight the foreclosure crisis in New York City, especially in Southeast Queens, which remains hard hit by this epidemic,” said Michael Hickey, Executive Director of CNYCN. “Currently, there are 30,000 pending foreclosure actions in New York City and we expect things to worsen in 2011 as general economic conditions remain weak. We are pleased to work with Council Member Wills and other elected officials to offer NYC homeowners access to free services from lenders and housing experts at events like the Rise Up & Stay Put! Home Rescue Fair.”

“South East Queens is a community built around the institutions of church and family,” said Yeneika Puran, Executive Director of CHANGER, INC. “We have organized these homeowner events and designed the CONNECT QUEENS campaign with distraught homeowners in mind. Homeowners who have been wrongfully denied loan modifications, homeowners scammed by fraudulent loan modification consultants, and homeowners who are overwhelmed by the experience.”

Jamaica is considered the epicenter of the foreclosure crisis in New York City. CNYCN and its nonprofit and city agency partners are hosting the 4^th Rise Up & Stay Put! Home Rescue Fair on April 23 at York College in Jamaica, Queens. This fair will provide a platform for homeowners to meet with their lenders and housing experts to seek loan modifications and other financial solutions in order to avoid foreclosure. To date, more than 2,300 homeowners have attended these fairs in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx, and 40 percent of the attendees were processed for new HAMP or non-HAMP loan modification applications, while 30 percent of the participants received help on existing applications.

For more information on Center for New York City Neighborhoods, www.cnycn.org

For more information on CHANGER, Inc., www.changernyc.org

For more information on CONNECT QUEENS, please call (718) 596-2010.

Saturday, April 16

1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. New Haven Ministries, Starlite Pavilion

130-05 101^st Ave., Richmond Hill

5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. Praise Tabernacle

108-11 Sutphin Blvd., Jamaica

Saturday, April 23

10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Rise-Up & Stay Put! Home Rescue Fair

York College

160-02 Liberty Ave., Jamaica

COMMUNITY MEETING ON SITING OF HOMELESS SHELTERS

Council Member Ruben Wills will join representatives from the Department of Homeless Services, Skyway shelter provider, Basics, and residents at a follow up community meeting to address the growing concerns caused by the lack of proper notification for the conversion of the Skyway shelter in to an adult male-only homeless shelter. It has also come to the attention of the community that more than one convicted sexual predator will now be living at Skyway which is near a public school and park. Basics will discuss the implementation of a new safety plan to further safeguard the community.

Earlier in the day, Council Member Wills will join Council Member Brad Lander, chair of the Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Siting & Maritime Uses, at a City Council public hearing, regarding the city's "Criteria for the Location of City Facilities" also known as "Fair Share Criteria."

In 1989, voters across the city adopted a City Charter change that attempted to equally distribute city facilities, like homeless shelters, across all neighborhoods. However, after more than 20 years, Council Member Wills and other elected officials claim that certain communities, particularly those in outer borough, urban neighborhoods, are bearing the brunt of an over-abundance of these facilities, with fewer resources and without proper notification to residents.

COUNCIL MEMBER RUBEN WILLS INTRODUCES LEGISLATION TO CODIFY CITY LAW TO PROHIBIT THE SALE OF EXPIRED OVER-THE-COUNTER MEDICATIONS

LEGISLATION IS FIRST FOR WILLS; LAW WILL PROTECT RESIDENTS FROM CROOKED STREET VENDORS

Council Member Ruben Wills plans to introduce his first piece of legislation on Wednesday that will codify the ban on the sale of expired over-the-counter medications.

Currently, New York State law prohibits the sale of expired over-the-counter medications by retailers such as Duane Reade or CVS. However, vendors and other licensees of the city have easily skirted the law by selling expired medications like Theraflu, Tylenol, Nyquil and Robitussin at street fairs and vendors’ markets.

“The sale of expired over-the-counter medications has serious health implications,” said Council Member Wills. “Residents who are purchasing these medications at neighborhood flea markets are unaware that they are ingesting expired medications. The potency of medication decreases over time and using medication after its expiration creates a greater likelihood that a person will take more in order to increase its effectiveness.”

Council Member Wills’ legislation closes this loophole and broadens the law to include “persons” so that there is no distinction between a vendor and a retailer. Passage of this legislation will make the distribution of expired over-the-counter medication by any individual a class B misdemeanor punishable by a fine of no more than $250, a maximum of 3 months of in jail, or both.

In November of 2009, then Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced an $875,000 settlement with the national retail pharmacy chain CVS to end its sale of expired products - including over-the-counter drugs, baby formula, milk, and eggs - at stores across New York State.

“This legislation will help prevent the distribution and flow of expired medications,” said Council Member Wills. “It is the responsibility of anyone who is selling over-the-counter medications to put the health and safety of consumers ahead of profits and sales.”

Shelter Switch Brings Outrage, Fear by Domenick Rafter - Queens Tribune

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About a month ago, Valerie Lewis, the principal of PS 124 in South Ozone Park, noticed students who lived in the Skyway Hotel homeless shelter two blocks from the school began missing class. Concerned about the pattern of absences, she walked over to the shelter which housed homeless families at 132-10 South Conduit Ave., and was horrified at what she found.

The Skyway Family Shelter sign still hangs outside the men-only site in Community Board 10. Tribune Photo by Ira Cohen

Families, given only five days' notice, were uprooted. The water in the building was turned off. Furniture was being thrown into the street.

"What was going on there was egregious," Lewis said.

Without warning, the shelter was reclassified a "men only shelter," and local residents and officials, irate at the City for what it calls "lack of respect" for their neighborhood, have grown further incensed. Nobody, not the shelter's neighbors, nor local officials, nor Community Board 10, knew it was happening. By the time parents and community members gathered at PS 124 on March 3, more than 30 men had already moved in.

Lewis said she had contacted the City and the new owners of the shelter, who had told her that the homeless population among single adults had risen, necessitating the need for more shelters, and families were being moved to parts of the City where there were "more opportunities." By the end of March, she said, the shelter would house up to 180 men.

"I think they thought no one would notice," she said.

An angry Councilman Ruben Wills (D-South Jamaica) told parents at a March 3 meeting that he was told about the change the night before. He said Dept. of Homeless Services Commissioner Seth Diamond told him that DHS moved the shelter into the community because "they met opposition elsewhere." Wills noted that more than 70 percent of Queens' homeless shelters are in Southeast Queens.

"Our unfair burden of housing the homeless population of Queens is not to be tolerated," he said. He added Council legislation to "scatter" homeless shelters was blocked, and called on the state legislature to step in. He also called for parents and local resident to "be loud" and suggested a rally be held at City Hall.

"This room should be packed," he said. "The more people there are, the more press it will get. The worst thing for the mayor right now is bad press. I'm not going to accept that you don't have time to fight for this."

CB 10 Chairwoman Betty Braton, who was also kept in the dark, called the shelter's change "outrageous." She said CB 10 District Manager Karyn Peterson has met with the Commissioner of Public Services about the shelter.

"I find it hard to believe they didn't have enough time to notify everyone," Braton said.

In a statement, Dept. of Homeless Services spokeswoman Heather Janik said the change was necessary and they would work with the community.

"As DHS continues to provide temporary, emergency shelter to homeless New Yorkers, we strive to be a good neighbor and work with the community to address any concerns that arise," the statement read. "We have recently seen an increase in the number of single adults seeking services from our system, and as such, must utilize all available capacity to ensure the needs of our clients are met every night."

DHS said it notified CB 10 and local officials Feb. 9 of the change and chose new management on Feb. 10.

Parents are concerned about the population of homeless men living in the shelter in the quiet community bordering JFK Airport and bisected by the Belt Parkway. They began to notice men from the shelter loitering at gas stations and a park on North Conduit Avenue, asking for money, and wandering residential streets at night. Eileen Lamanna, who has a child and a grandchild in PS 124, said she has seen groups of men gathering in areas where children walk every day.

"We don't know what they're putting in that shelter and they aren't going to tell us," Lamanna said. "What were these people in power thinking?"

The PTA at PS 124 met with the new management at the shelter to discuss security. They were told the shelter would have five full-time security guards working on three shifts, but the shift changes will coincide with school arrival and dismissal, which worried parents.

The guards will only work on shelter grounds and after 10 p.m., the doors of the center will be locked and those left outside will be left to fend for themselves until morning. The shelter has agreed to provide vans to bring the men outside of the neighborhood for recreation. They admitted the shelter does not know the criminal records of the men who will be housed there because the City gives them little notice when they drop off residents.

That point opened up concern about the possibility of violent criminals or sex offenders living in the shelter without anyone knowing. The school and the surrounding neighborhood sits in between the shelter and the A train subway and Aqueduct Racetrack, leading to concerns about men in the shelter coming in contact with children on their way to and from the casino scheduled to open there this summer.

Lewis said PS 124 would now have to come up with its own security plan. The school building will be locked down during the day. In the schoolyard at recess, the gates will be locked, with teachers and staff having the key to open them.

Lewis said PS 124 was recently changed to a "priority one" school, calling for added security. Lewis said she thought it was because of the school's proximity to JFK. Landing planes often fly low over the school. Now she believes the shelter had something to do with that change.

"That should have been my first signal," she said.

Reach Reporter Domenick Rafter at drafter@queenstribune.com or (718) 357-7400, Ext. 125.

Coalition for the Homeless on Bloomberg Budget Eliminating Advantage Funding

The Coalition for the Homeless released the following statement today from Executive Director Mary Brosnahan on Mayor Bloomberg's proposed budget, which would completely eliminate funding for the Advantage homelessness program:

"The Mayor's proposal to defund the failed Advantage program would put an end to a disastrous experiment that the city's own data shows has become little more than a revolving door back to homelessness. Fortunately the City and State have Federal housing resources available to help move homeless families from costly shelters to permanent housing -- and these programs don't cost New York taxpayers a dime.

But without replacing Advantage with the Federal programs, Mayor Bloomberg's administration would become the first in modern history to have no plan whatsoever for moving people out of the city's homeless shelters. That would trigger even further overcrowding in shelters and needless suffering for thousands of families.

Instead, in this time of record homelessness, the city must replace Advantage with the proven and cost-effective policy of giving qualified homeless families priority access to public housing vacancies and federal rent subsidy programs like Section 8. By giving the homeless permanent, supportive, and affordable housing the city can both save taxpayer money and help thousands of people rebuild their lives."