FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JUNE 18, 2020 • THE QUEENS COURIER 29
DHS relocating Bronx shelter residents to College Point hotel
BY ZACHARY GEWELB
zgewelb@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Th ree northeast Queens lawmakers are
calling for more transparency and better
Photo via Google Maps
Dime Community Bank announces new president, executive vice president
BY QNS STAFF
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
Dime Community Bank announced the
promotion of two executives last week.
Stuart H. Lubow, the former chief banking
offi cer, has been promoted to president,
and John Romano has been promoted
to serve as Dime’s executive vice president
and chief retail offi cer.
Lubow, who has been a banking executive
for more than 40 years, joined Dime
in 2017 as a senior executive vice president
and head of Business Banking. In
addition, he served as an executive with
Community National Bank, Community
State Bank, Garden State Bank, Dollar
Dry Dock Bank and People’s Bank.
Romano also joined Dime in 2017 and
has also had a lengthy career in community
banking. He’s worked as an executive at
First Central Savings Bank, Amalgamated
Bank, People’s United Bank, Bank of
Smithtown and Astoria Federal Savings.
“In the past three years and under John’s
direction, Business Banking has grown
into a strong and critical part of the
Bank,” Lubow said of Romano’s promotion.
“With retail and business banking,
along with operations, under the same
leadership, I look forward to continued
collaboration and growth in these areas
in the future.”
“Stu’s promotion to president recognizes
his outstanding leadership, customer-centric
focus, enterprise-wide vision, and our
Business Banking division’s strong performance
to-date,” said Kenneth J. Mahon,
the bank’s CEO. “In a short span of time,
under Stu’s leadership, Dime has made
signifi cant strides to become a well-respected
community commercial bank.
Th e Business Banking division’s strong
loan and deposit growth has enabled us
to: increase our core net interest margin
for six consecutive quarters, diversify our
balance sheet and grow sources of non-interest
income.”
“Stu has contributed tremendously to
our long-term goal of becoming the best
business bank in New York. I very much
look forward to working closely with Stu
in the years ahead and creating value for
our customers, employees and shareholders,”
Mahon added.
Dime Community Bank was founded in
1864. With headquarters in Brooklyn, the
bank has 28 branches throughout Queens,
Brooklyn, the Bronx and Long Island.
Photos courtesy of Dime Community Bank.
communication from the Department
of Homeless Services aft er learning that
the agency is transferring 96 residents
of a Bronx men’s homeless shelter into a
College Point hotel.
State Senator John Liu, Councilman
Paul Vallone and Assemblyman Daniel
Rosenthal released a joint statement aft er
learning of the transfer that is sending the
Bronx residents to the Fairfi eld Hotel at
28-66 College Point Blvd.
A spokesperson for Vallone’s offi ce said
that is the lawmakers’ understanding that
DHS began transferring the residents
Friday, June 12. In their statement, the
lawmakers said DHS promised that the
move is a “temporary arrangement.”
Th e transfer comes as DHS continues
its eff ort to relocate non-symptomatic and
non-asymptomatic homeless individuals
from congregate shelters to low-density
settings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
DHS had previously relocated residents of
a Rockaway Park homeless shelter to a commercial
hotel and moved residents from a
College Point homeless shelter to a hotel.
DSS spokesperson Isaac McGinn said
that while the agency cannot confi rm specifi
c locations that they may be using to
provide temporary shelter where social
service recipients are residing because the
information is protected by NYS Social
Services Law, the use of commercial
hotels is “an essential part of our strategies
for protecting the New Yorkers who
we serve.”
“At DSS, we’re confi dent that our strategies
for combating COVID-19 and protecting
the 60,000-plus New Yorkers we
serve on any given night have eff ectively
fl attened our curve, which has closely
tracked citywide trends,” McGinn said.
McGinn said that approximately 12,000
shelter residents have been relocated
to commercial hotel settings and that
DSS has been working with the city’s
Department of Health and NYC Health +
Hospitals to provide care to its most vulnerable
clients, including seniors and single
adults.
“We will continue to pursue these
strategies, including moving up to 1,000
additional clients each week as needed,
because it is best for our clients, redoubling
our eff orts and evolving with this
situation to ensure we’re supporting our
clients in all that we do,” he said.
But Vallone, Liu and Rosenthal criticized
the agency for a “lack of communication
and transparency” regarding its
plans during the pandemic.
“In a pattern of rushed decision making,
DHS just weeks ago relocated homeless
women from the College Point shelter
on 20th Avenue to a hotel in a diff erent
neighborhood. Uprooting the neighborhood’s
current residents and transferring
homeless individuals across boroughs
during a pandemic is an irresponsible
policy,” the lawmakers said. “Th is
lack of foresight and planning compromises
the health of not only our vulnerable
populations, but also of staff and service
providers.”
Th e trio said that they will continue
to be in communication with 109th
Precinct, which is already aware of the
transfer.
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