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QUEENS WEEKLY, JANUARY 19, 2020
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, three-bedroom
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 shortterm
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 singlefamily
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.
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 – in
a sense. That’s why they
prefer to be on the outside
where they are unseen
from the public.”
Though Nanoom is a
Christian-affiliated 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 e-mail at mparrott@
schnepsmedia.com
or by phone at (718) 260-
2507.
Nanoom House residents gather to meet with Assemblyman Ron Kim. Photos: Max Parrott/QNS
ASTORIA TIMES ■ BAYSIDE TIMES
FLUSHING TIMES ■ FOREST HILLS LEDGER
FRESH MEADOWS TIMES
JACKSON HEIGHTS TIMES ■ JAMAICA TIMES
LAURELTON TIMES ■ LITTLE NECK LEDGER
QUEENS VILLAGE TIMES ■ RIDGEWOOD LEDGER
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