6 JUNE 4, 2020 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
City to move residents of Glendale shelter
BY BILL PARRY
BPARRY@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
As the COVID-19 pandemic began its
deadly spread through Queens in
mid-March, Councilman Robert
Holden called on the city to close the
controversial shelter for homeless men
on Cooper Avenue in Glendale.
The living situation inside the 200-bed
shelter, with dormitories consisting of
up to 12 men, was not at all “conducive
with the guidelines being set forth by
health professionals to stop the spread
of coronavirus,” Holden said at the time.
Two month later, the Department of
Homeless Services, which is overseen
by the Department of Social Services, is
planning to move residents out of what
they call the Cooper Rapid Rehousing
Center into commercial hotels rooms,
although the agency could not confi rm
specifi c locations due to the NYS Social
Services Law.
“At DSS, we’re continuing to implement
tired strategies and proactive
initiatives to combat COVID-19, protect
New Yorkers who we serve, and ensure
anyone who needs it is connected immediately
to care or to isolation — and
the use of commercial hotels is central
to this work,” DSS spokesman Isaac
McGinn said. “Through these eff orts,
our essential staff have been able to help
more than 900 New Yorkers eff ectively
isolate, resolve their conditions, and depart
isolation. At the same time, through
these strategies, we have also proactively
relocated and continue to proactively
relocate thousands of individuals from
targeted shelters to commercial hotel
settings out of an abundance of caution,
including seniors and single adults from
larger congregate locations, who are not
sick at this time.”
McGinn added that as of the weekend,
approximately 10,000 shelter residents,
well over half of all single adults in the
system, are now residing in hotels with
that number increasing to 11,000 by next
week.
“Every day, we’re redoubling our efforts
and evolving with this situation to
ensure we’re supporting our clients in all
that we do — and we continue to explore
new strategies and policy responses as
this situation unfolds,” McGinn said.
Holden remains skeptical of the city
agency.
“This pandemic has magnified the
many problems with congregate shelters
that DHS Commissioner Steven Banks
has ignored for far too long,” Holden
said. “I called for the DHS to move the
shelter residents into hotel rooms when
the pandemic fi rst broke out in March,
but I have little faith that it will follow
through. It is by far the least transparent
agency and has been caught in too many
lies already. It seems the agency would
rather put lives at risk than admit its
wrongdoings.”
Meanwhile, Assemblywoman Stacey
Pheff er Amato, state Senator Joseph
Addabbo, and Councilman Eric Ulrich
announced in a joint statement that DHS
is temporarily moving the residents of
the 113-bed Laurel Hill Shelter, located at
85-15 101st Ave. in Ozone Park to another
location.
“We believe this is the right decision as
a part of their citywide eff orts to reduce
density in their shelters,” they said. “This
is a sensible policy that will help maintain
social distancing and slow the spread of
COVID-19 among both the shelter and
non-shelter population by providing
them with individual rooms. We will
continue to work in the best interests of
all our constituents to address concerns
surrounding the shelter.”
Councilman Robert Holden has been adamantly opposed to a homeless
shelter in Glendale, whose residents are being moved to hotels due to
the COVID-19 pandemic. QNS/File photo
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