Flushing-based homeless shelter racks
up violations that threaten its existence
BY MAX PARROTT
The fate of Nanoom House, a nonprofit
homeless shelter that serves
predominantly Korean-American
residents of Murray Hill, rests on the
outcome of a court hearing to be held
later this month.
The independently funded shelter
— one of only a few in the city that
houses mostly Asian-American immigrants
— is located in a small, threebedroom
house at 34-30 150th Pl.
One look at the shelter’s green colonial
exterior and its surroundings —
houses, lawns and driveways — and
you might think that a small family
lives there. But until recently, it typically
housed around 30 residents on a
short-term basis, many of them non-
English speakers who found a sanctuary
that catered to their language
and cultural needs close to the heart
of Flushing.
At the beginning of November,
the Department of Buildings (DOB)
responded to several 311 complaints
from its neighbors. Upon inspection,
the agency charged the owners of the
building, listed as Sunree Solid Art
LLC, with fines stemming from converting
the building from its use as
a single-family home to a boarding
house.
The inspection found that the
shelter contained three rooms on the
second floor that did not have the permits
to be used for single-room occupancy
(SRO). In other words, the DOB
found that the way that the residents
were split up into separate rooms
with locks on the doors functioned
too closely to discrete apartments, in
violation of the building’s status as a
single-family home.
The building was also charged
with violations related to the installation
of a second bathroom in the basement
without a permit.
The resulting fines on the shelter,
which does not receive city subsidy
and relies on volunteer staff, could
range from $47,500 to $95,000 based
on what happens in its hearing with
Office of Administrative Trials and
Hearings (OATH), scheduled for Jan.
21.
On Nov. 25, the shelter followed up
with the DOB to certify that the illegal
SRO units had been removed from
the property.
On Dec. 19, Flushing Assemblyman
Ron Kim visited the shelter with
his staff to meet with Nanoom CEO
Rev. Sung-Won Park about the problems
the organization is facing and to
listen to its homeless residents about
what brought them there.
Nanoom House residents gather to meet with Assemblyman Ron Kim. Photos: Max Parrott/QNS
During the visit, the residents said
that many homeless Korean-Americans
have bounced out of or avoided
city shelters as a result of language
barriers and lack of immigration
documents.
“They prefer to be on the street
rather than in a homeless shelter,”
said Jin Park, Rev. Parks’ son and a
volunteer at Nanoom. “As you can
see, there are many elders here. And,
you know, Asians have a shame culture
TIMESLEDGER | 2 QNS.COM | JAN. 17-23, 2020
– in a sense. That’s why they prefer
to be on the outside where they are
unseen from the public.”
Though Nanoom is a Christianaffiliated
shelter, Kim said that he
didn’t have a long-term answer as to
how it might fit into the mayor’s recently
unveiled plan to build more
small-scale “Safe Haven” bedspaces
and work with faith-based organizations
to retrofit privately owned properties
into shelters. In the meantime,
he said he intends to work with the
DOB to address their case.
“What about some of the nonprofits
like these that are just kind of organically
doing it on their own? How
do they fit into this puzzle? We want
to figure that out for them,” he told
QNS.
Kim plans to try and resolve some
of the fines administratively with
DOB by showing them that the shelter
has made a good-faith effort to amend
some of the problem areas. He and
his staff have been helping Nanoom’s
staff document their efforts to get
up to code, including the removal of
bedspace from the illegally converted
rooms where it was previously sheltering
groups of residents per night.
Those documentation efforts considered,
Kim says its court hearing is
not the end of the battle for Nanoom’s
existence.
“If we don’t fix the larger problem
of them being able to exist there
without outsiders calling 311 on them,
we’re going to continue to have a problem.
So I think that’s the larger problem
that we need to figure out how to
resolve,” said Kim.
Reach reporter Max Parrott by email
at mparrott@schnepsmedia.com
or by phone at (718) 260-2507.
FLUSHING TIMES (USPS#03925) is published weekly by Queens CNG LLC, 38-15 Bell Boulevard, Bayside, NY 11361, (718) 229-0300. The entire contents of this publication are copyright 2020. All rights reserved.
The newspaper will not be liable for errors appearing in any advertising beyond the cost of the space occupied by the error. Periodicals postage paid at Flushing, N.Y. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to the
FLUSHING TIMES C/O Queens CNG LLC 38-15 Bell Boulevard, Bayside, N.Y. 11361
link
/QNS.COM
link
