The State Senate’s seven-member Independent Democratic Conference (IDC) yesterday released a shocking investigative report, titled Horrors in Homeless Housing that details the deplorable conditions of the temporary shelter system and offers a five-point legislative solution to the homelessness crises.
The IDC includes Brooklyn Senators Diane Savino (Coney Island, Staten Island) and Jesse Hamilton (Brownsville, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Gowanus, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, South Slope, Sunset Park) along with IDC Chair Senator Jeff Klein (D-Bronx/Westchester) and Senators Tony Avella (D-Queens), Marisol Alcantara (D-Manhattan), David Valesky (D-Syracuse) and David Carlucci (D-Rockland County).
The report analyzes inspection data in commercial hotels and cluster site housing (apartment buildings rented out specifically for the homeless) where some of New York City’s skyrocketing homeless population call home. Violations left open at many sites where families and individuals are placed include unsafe cooking spaces, toilets that don’t flush, lead paint contamination and broken fire escapes.
“It is unconscionable to allow children and families to be forced to live in these violation ridden hotels and cluster sites. These sites lack the basic services that homeless families should have access to and make living a normal life difficult, if not impossible. The IDC plan presented today will keep people in their homes and make it easier for those in the shelter system to find a place of their own,” said Savino.
“New York City has a duty to provide shelter, aid, and support for the homeless who live in our city. However, the current system completely looks past the aid and support and only wishes to provide the bare minimum shelter provisions. Many times these sites are almost as bad as staying on the street and the individuals are not treated with any dignity. The City does very little to provide these families and individuals with the assistance and support necessary to get back on their feet. The City should be allocating funds for programs that can cater to basic human needs rather than facilities that warehouse families. We need to provide these families and individuals with, at the very least, basic city services that are built into our State’s constitution and our City’s charter,” said Avella.
The investigation found that 78% of identified hotels used to house the homeless currently have a total of 433 open violations, with the 10 worst sites accounting for 67.9% of all violations. The worst violater in Brooklyn is the Galaxy Motel, 860 Pennsylvania Avenue in East New York with 16 open violations.
While the violations at hotels are alarming, investigators found violations at cluster sites to be especially egregious, with 93% of those analyzed having open violations. Despite numbering less than homeless hotels, cluster sites had nearly six times as many violations and averaged 68 violations per site.
In Brooklyn the worst cluster site violators included LCG Brooklyn, 1801 Pitkin Avenue in East New York with 144 open violations; Brooklyn Acacia Cluster, 2063 Nostrand Avenue in Flatbush with 142 open violations; and Monica House II, Women In Need, 899 Montgomery Street in Crown Heights with 113 open violations.
In response to the findings, the IDC proposes a five-point legislative solution that will focus on prevention, re-housing and planning.
The proposal includes the Home Stability Support initiative which will provide a statewide rent supplement for families and individuals, who are facing eviction, are currently homeless, or who have lost housing due to domestic violence and/or hazardous conditions.
The IDC will introduce legislation to ensure inclusion of domestic violence survivors within the HSS, expand housing anti-discrimination measures, give preference in the New York City Housing Lottery to those living in shelters and require a survey of homelessness across the state. With the implementation of these policies, the use of dangerous hotels and cluster sites will be greatly diminished, resulting in safer, stable housing for struggling New Yorkers.
“We need to stop using hotels, cluster sites, and temporary housing and instead advance real solutions to our affordable housing crisis. That’s why I am a strong supporter of the Home Stability Support Program in the 2017 budget, so we can proactively prevent people from facing homelessness,” said Hamilton.
“It is also why I am a strong supporter of 100% affordable housing at the Bedford Union Armory site – we need to use our public-owned sites for public benefit. Three of the top ten cluster site violators are in communities I represent in Crown Heights and Brownsville. Our neighbors are living in buildings with more than 100 open violations. Nobody should live like this. I am proud to stand with colleagues in demanding the housing our most vulnerable New Yorkers deserve,” he added.
