City’s proposed homeless shelter in Far Rockaway
met with resistance from local elected offi cials
StartUP! competition returns to help entrepreneurs launch businesses
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
If you’re a Queens entrepreneur
who is seeking to start a
business or grow an existing
business, the Queens Economic
Development Corporation is
offering free instruction, and
one-on-one consultations with
experienced advisers through
its latest StartUP! Business
Competition.
The StartUP! Business
Competition will run from
November to March 2021,
thanks to the Queens Economic
Development Corporation,
Resorts World Casino
New York City, Queens Public
Library and the Srivastava
Technology fund.
Now in its 15th year, Start-
UP! is a four-month program
for solo entrepreneurs and
teams who are in the early
stages of developing or growing
their businesses.
The instruction is online
this year, and participants
must attend four free, onehour
workshops on the following
topics: Identify and
Validate Customer Needs and
Problems; Develop and Test
Your Business Model; Branding
Strategies for Startups;
and Financial Statement
Basics for Startups. The sessions
will be recorded and
shared by request.
At the same time, participants
will have access
to a diverse peer-to-peer
networking community
and technical support from
QEDC advisors, who offer
free, 30-minute phone consultations.
After attending a fourth
session, applicants have
until March 1, 2021, to complete
and submit an online
application to enter StartUP!
in any of four categories –
Technology, Community,
Food and Sustainability.
TIMESLEDGER |36 QNS.COM | NOV. 20-NOV. 26, 2020
Three finalists from each
category will present their
plans to a panel of judges.
Then, the judges will select
one $10,000 winner in each
category.
Since it began in 2006,
StartUP! has awarded a total
of $450,000 in grants to 71 winners
chosen from a combined
pool of 4,300 participants.
QEDC believes that inclusion
is an economic imperative
and entrepreneurship is
open to everyone, regardless
of gender, race or birthplace.
For more info on these programs
and other services, visit
www.queensny.org.
Reach reporter Carlotta
Mohamed by e-mail at cmohamed@
schnepsmedia.com or
by phone at (718) 260–4526.
BY BILL PARRY
Despite pushback from local leaders,
the city is moving forward with its
plans to build a new shelter for homeless
families in Far Rockaway under
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s “Turning the
Tide” initiative.
The initiative, aimed to end decadesold
stop-gap measures such as using
cluster sites and commercial hotel facilities,
will see the new shelter will be
built in place of the Far Rockaway Cathedral
church at 1252 Brunswick Ave.
“As we implement our boroughbased
approach, we are ending the
inefficient stop-gap facilities citywide
while opening high-quality facilities
New Yorkers in need deserve as they
stabilize their lives,” NYC DSS-DHS
said in a statement. “This high-quality,
borough-based facility will be the first
of its kind in this Community District,
offering 72 adult families experiencing
homelessness the opportunity to get
back on their feet safely and closer to
their anchors of life. Working together
with neighbors and not-for-profit provider
Black Vets for Social Justice,
we’re confident that these new Yorkers
will be warmly welcomed and through
collaborative support and compassion,
we will make this the best experience it
can be for all.”
According to the city, there are 489
households comprised of 984 individuals
from Queens Community District
14 in shelters across the city, however,
there are only 831 sheltered in CD 14.
The new facility at 12-52 Brunswick
Ave. will provide 72 homeless adult families
the opportunity to be sheltered in
their home borough, closer to their support
networks including schools, jobs,
healthcare, family, social services and
communities they call home.
“The Rockaway Peninsula has many
needs, but a seventh homeless shelter is
not one of them,” Assemblywoman Stacey
Pheffer Amato said. “I strongly oppose
the proposed shelter at 1252 Brunswick
Avenue in Far Rockaway.”
Let’s be clear, this has nothing to do
with the compassion of our community
towards families in need of housing and
additional services. The city is completely
shortsighted by placing families
in a geographically and economically
isolated community and should explore
other options to better serve and assist
these families, ” Pheffer Amato added.
“Placing families and individuals on a
peninsula with already overburdened
social services infrastructure, and insufficient
employment and transportation
options will create an additional
obstacle. The city cannot continue to
rely on the Rockaway Peninsula as they
fail to come up with a comprehensive
plan to adequately solve the homeless
crisis in New York City at the root. I am
working closely with community leaders
and my colleagues in government to
work towards alternative outcomes.”
State Senator Joseph Addabbo made
many of the same points in making
his opposition clear to the proposed
shelter.
“While we all support assisting
homeless individuals, putting a large
capacity homeless shelter — this one located
at 1252 Brunswick Avenue — the
seventh on the peninsula, without any
community input, is not the right way
to do it,” Addabbo said. “We have witnessed
the mayor’s administration fall
far short of achieving its goal of providing
the services homeless individuals
need to get back on their feet, with large
populations being warehoused at inefficient
locations, with a site selection process
that does not allow for any helpful
outside input, ideas or suggestions. The
Rockaways have always faced a unique
set of challenges by being geographically
isolated from the rest of Queens, and
it is not fair to the community residents
and businesses, as well as those facing
homelessness, to place another shelter
in this area. I will continue working
with the local community and government
officials to address this issue.”
The new facility would be the
41st shelter to open under the mayor’s
“Turning the Tide” plan and is
expected to open in 2022.
Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at
bparry@schnepsmedia.com or by phone
at (718) 260–4538.
The Far Rockaway Cathedral church at 1252 Brunswick Ave.
Photo via Google Maps
The 2019 QEDC winners of the Queens StartUP! Business Competition. Courtesy of QEDC
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