Saturday, June 11, 2016

Motel Homeless Shelter Discussed at CB 8 Land Use Meeting



     On the agenda of the June 9th Community Board 8 Land Use Committee meeting was an item titled 'Human Resources Administration - Placement of housing facility for homeless persons at Van Cortlandt Motel 6393 Broadway.
      Matt Borden the Assistant Commissioner of Governmental Relations, and Louis Molina the Senior Advisor for the Department of Homeless addressed the Community Board 8 Land Use Committee, State Senator Jeff Klein, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, Councilman Andrew Cohen, and the almost 100 people in the audience of the meeting on the status of the Van Cortlandt Motel homeless shelter. 
    It seems that as many as three people are placed in a motel room with little supervision. The only way the community found out about this new homeless shelter was because there was an incident with one of the people the city placed in the motel. Even the 50th Police Precinct was never notified that a homeless shelter was placed at the motel. There were many questions thrown at the two city representatives, and one woman complained that the quality of life is deteriorating even more on Broadway.
     State Senator Jeff Klein spoke for a while saying this was the third time that a homeless shelter had popped up in his district. He said that while the senate passed legislation that he wrote to have community boards be notified of new homeless shelter sites the legislation died in the state assembly. Klein said that he was going to draft new legislation that would address the issue, ad be able to satisfy those in the assembly who voted against the first bill. The conclusion was that Councilman Cohen said that the  commissioner of Homeless told him that the site would be reviewed by September, and that it should be gone by then.  


Representatives for the city address the audience. Also in the photo seated is Community Board 8 Land Use Chair Charles Moerdler (left), and Community Board 8 Chairman Daniel Padernacht (right).


State Senator Jeff Klein responds to what he heard from the city representatives who look on from the side. Also in the photo seated is Community Board 8 District Manager Patricia Manning (far right).



As they are always ready to serve their communities are Councilman Andrew Cohen, State Senator Jeff Klein, and Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz.

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