You are reading

City comptroller rejects Pan American shelter contract

pan-american-hotel-new-york

May 12, 2015 By Michael Florio

Plans to convert the former Pan America Hotel into a permanent homeless shelter remain uncertain after Comptroller Scott Stringer rejected a contract Monday citing concerns for residents’ safety.

The Department of Homeless Services and the non-profit group Samaritan Village had entered into a 5-year contract to turn the 79-00 Queens Blvd hotel building into a permanent transitional housing shelter.

Stringer said that his decision was largely based on a March report issued by the city’s investigative unit that raised significant concerns about how the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) identifies and takes care of health and safety concerns.

“In light of this [Department of Investigation] report, today, I am rejecting two permanent shelter contracts which I will not approve until my office receives assurances that anyone staying in these facilities will be safe,” Stringer said in a statement. The other shelter is in Manhattan.

Stringer added that before he approves a permanent shelter contract he wants to see all outstanding violations and complaints be corrected.

The 79-00 Queens Blvd contract has been sent back to the mayor’s office for further evaluation.

In the last month, there have been reports of vermin infestation as well as a fire breaking out in one of the units.

“We simply can and must do better on behalf of the 60,000 people, including nearly 25,000 children, who are under our care,” he said.

The mayor announced yesterday that he had created a multi-agency team to combat unhealthy and unsafe conditions at homeless shelters.

email the author: news@queenspost.com

2 Comments

Click for Comments 
jo

Mr. Stringer’s decision to reject the contract was based on the egregious conditions at the Pan Am Shelter. The 216 family homeless shelter is hard to manage as well as cost prohibitive. Bringing the facility up to code, including adding a required cooking facility in each room, and fixing the building to free it of any violation is expensive. The $42 million DHS is spending on this contract is better spent on housing the homeless in apartments and integrating them into communities thru the use of rent subsidies and vouchers. It is a long term, cost effective and preferred solution to the homeless and their neighbors

Reply

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

Queens TV actor gets 25 years to life for 2021 revenge killing in St. Albans: DA

A TV actor from Rego Park was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison on Friday after he was found guilty of murdering a man during a 2021 ambush in St. Albans.

Isaiah Stokes, 45, of 62nd Road, was convicted on March 7 of murder in the second degree and other related crimes for gunning down 37-year-old Tyrone Jones as he sat in a parked Jeep Cherokee waiting on a friend to arrive for lunch. The fatal shooting was in retaliation for an altercation between the two men at the victim’s birthday bash months earlier.

‘From worst to best’: LaGuardia named top U.S. airport by Forbes Travel Guide

Forbes Travel Guide named LaGuardia Airport as the nation’s best airport in October based on a survey of 5,000 hospitality and travel experts and the guide’s most well-traveled fliers.

On Tuesday, Port Authority executive director Rick Cotton accepted the Verified Air Travel Award in the recently completed Terminal C. The award is the latest in a long list of accolades given to LaGuardia throughout the course of the airport’s $8 billion transformation project that began in 2016.