8 OCTOBER 18, 2018 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Maspeth site viewed by city as possible alternate to Glendale shelter
BY MARK HALLUM
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@MARKUUSAN
Rumors of P.S. 9 in Maspeth being
converted into a homeless
shelter were very premature,
according to Councilman Robert
Holden, who will be speaking at a town
hall meeting regarding this topic on
the evening of Thursday, Oct. 18.
Holden said he has been fi ghting
since March to get students at P.S.
9 on 57th Street in Maspeth into a
better facility since many of children
attending that location deal with
disabilities ranging from autism to
Down’s syndrome.
But if the school is to become a
homeless shelter, it would need to go
through the Uniform Land Use Review
Process (ULURP) approval process
with the City Planning Commission.
It would also need recommendations
from Community Board 5 and the
Queens borough president.
“The reason why P.S. 9 might be available
is because I have been fi ghting
since March to get a District 75 school
out of there,” Holden said. “It was
built for all boys in 1905 and it’s very
inadequate for the student population.
There’s only one bathroom per fl oor,
yet they have both male and female
students. They have changing tables,
and I have photographs of this, in front
of urinals. So I was determined since
the springtime to fi nd a locations to
build a state-of-the-art school in my
district.”
The available space at 78-16 Cooper
Ave. in Glendale has piqued the
interest of the School Construction
Authority (SCA). The city’s Department
of Homeless Services (DHS) has
revived unpopular plans to build a
homeless shelter at the Glendale site,
but Holden said he off ered help fi nding
an alternative location.
Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan
issued a release on Oct. 11 responding
to rumors that a homeless shelter
would be places somewhere on the
two block corridor that is 57th Street
in Maspeth and opposed DHS using
the school.
“I don’t want to see a homeless shelter
on 57th Street, it’s an absolutely terrible
location,” Nolan said on Friday.
“The city hasn’t followed through
on anything they said and we have
homeless people in all the hotels in
Long Island City on a small rotating
basis. How many more are we going to
take? I want to work with Councilman
Holden, Assemblymen Barnwell and
Miller … and I’m hoping we can all
work together.”
The city’s Department of Environmental
Protection conducted a
study of the Cooper Avenue site and
found there to be asbestos in the
roof and a cleanup order was made
for asbestos found on the first floor.
But it is still unclear as to whether
or not the SCA would be even use
the building or construct a new one,
Holden said.
“Once DHS said the School Construction
Authority wants the
Cooper Avenue site, we have to fi nd
a new location for a homeless shelter,
and that’s where we are now, trying
to find other locations,” Holden
said. “Of course, one site that was
mentioned, if District 75 moves out
of P.S. 9, then P.S. 9 would obviously
become available. And that was only
one of the sites mentioned in only one
discussion as a possible location for
a homeless shelter.”
What particularly piqued the SCA’s
interest in the Cooper Avenue site,
Holden noted, was the amount of land
with space to park school buses off the
street.
Photo via Google Maps
P.S. 9 was built before the surrounding
area turned into a more industrial
setting, and now 18-wheelers pass by the
school while reaching adjacent buildings.
In Maspeth, 57th Street only runs
for about a block and a half between
Flushing and Grand Avenues and is
mostly lined with warehouses, about
fi ve row-houses as well as P.S. 9.
Holden has urged DHS to place a
homeless shelter away from residential
areas and in commercial districts.
The Oct. 18 town hall will be hosted
by the Juniper Park Civic Association
at Our Lady of Hope starting at
7:30 p.m.
Nolan confi rms rumors about Maspeth shelter proposals
BY MARK HALLUM
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM\
@MARKUUSAN
Assemblywoman Catherine
Nolan said that rumors about
a new homeless shelter in Maspeth
have been confi rmed to her offi ce
from an unknown source.
Nolan told the Ridgewood Times on
Oct. 12 that the shelter could be placed
at P.S. 9 on 57th Street — but other
activists and politicians are holding
their tongues. The assemblywoman
also declined to disclose the identity
of the source.
Although city offi cials have yet to
confi rm this, Nolan worries the de
Blasio administration could act fast to
divert students – many of whom are
bused in – and place “hundreds” of
homeless people in the building.
“I don’t want to see a homeless shelter
on 57th Street. It’s an absolutely terrible
location,” Nolan said. “The city
hasn’t followed through on anything
they said and we have homeless people
in all the hotels in Long Island City on a
small rotating basis. How many more
areas we going to take? I want to work
with Councilman Holden, Assemblymen
Barnwell and Miller … and I’m
hoping we can all work together.”
In Maspeth, 57th Street only runs
for about a block and a half between
Flushing and Grand Avenues and is
mostly lined with warehouses, about
fi ve row-houses as well as P.S. 9.
“When the city moves, it moves very
quickly, and I don’t want to wake up
next week and fi nd beds in P.S. 9,” Nolan
continued.
Nolan also spoke of concern about a
potential shelter at Summerfi eld Street
and Wyckoff Avenue in Ridgewood.
The city Department of Homeless
Services has yet to respond to a request
for comment from QNS.
A spokesman from state Senator
Joseph Addabbo could not confi rm the
rumors but said their offi ce is looking
into the matter.
Tony Nunziato, president of the
Juniper Park Civic Association and a
Maspeth business owner, said that he
is also looking into the validity of the
rumors.
Nunziato was a leader with the Maspeth
Middle Village Task Force which
organized nightly shelter protests
against the Holiday Inn on 55th Road
which was slated to accommodate over
200 families in 2016 and 2017. Nunziato
ran in the 2016 election as a Republican
against now-Assemblyman Brian
Barnwell, who had just unseated longtime
incumbent Margaret Markey in
that year’s Democratic primary.
The protests against hotel conversions
into shelters to combat the homelessness
crisis in 2016 set the tone of
conversation between the city offi cials
and residents who opposed the rise of
shelters and was a point of contention
in both election seasons that followed.
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Turning of the
Tide on Homelessness aims to place a
shelter in every community board district
in the city. However, many argue
that some neighborhoods and boards
have more than their share.
In Blissville, a fi ve-block industrial
section of Long Island City, residents
are now outnumbered by about 500
homeless residents who fill three
shelters converted from hotels.
P.S. 9 in Maspeth
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