Photo: Mayor de Blasio has launched the Shelter Repair Squad to address conditions in city shelters, including at the former Pan Am Hotel in Elmhurst. File Photo.
With recent headlines depicting a system in crisis, Mayor Bill de Blasio this week announced that the city will be deploying over 100 workers from multiple agencies to over 500 buildings that operate as homeless shelters to begin immediately addressing building, fire and other code violations that may impact the health and safety of residents.
On Monday in Corona, de Blasio launched the Shelter Repair Squad—an interagency team spearheaded by Deputy Mayors Anthony Shorris and Lilliam Barrios-Paoli and comprised of the Department of Homeless Services, Fire Department, Department of Buildings, Housing Preservation and Development, and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Each agency has assigned teams to the Shelter Repair Squad for both inspection and repair, de Blasio said.
The SRS will be funded by $12.5 million through Fiscal Year 2016. De Blasio said that the administration will also commit further funding for ongoing costs as needed.
The announcement comes two months after the Department of Investigation released a report about conditions at 25 city-run homeless shelters. In the report, DOI called for the creation of such an inter-agency task force.
“[W]e are dealing with a problem that is decades old and has gotten worse for several reasons,” de Blasio noted. “Obviously, the effects of the Great Recession, and the effects of the housing crises in this city have deepened the dynamics of homelessness…another key factor has been mistakes by the federal government, by the state government, and even the city government—choices—decisions that unfortunately exacerbated homelessness. We’ve had a lot less in the way of resources to address homelessness. It’s not a surprise that homelessness has increased in this city. So we’re digging out of a hole here, trying to protect so many families and individuals even though there have been years of disinvestment in all levels of government.”
Last month, an exclusive report in the New York Daily News illustrated part of the problems facing shelters, staff and residents when it revealed that a city facility at the former Pan Am Hotel in Elmhurst was being overrun by vermin. As a result, City Comptroller Scott Stringer on Monday rejected the proposed five-year, $42.4 million contract between the Department of Homeless Services and operator Samaritan Village, Inc. that would have made it a permanent shelter.
Stringer indicated that he will not approve the contract “until my office receives assurances that anyone staying in these facilities will be safe, all outstanding violations and complaints have been corrected and all documentation that the requirements of the contracting process were met.”
By Michael V. Cusenza michael@theforumnewsgroup.com
