Brooklyn Boro

OPINION: Integrating shelters into fabric of our communities

May 16, 2017 By State Assemblymember Maritza Davila Brooklyn Daily Eagle
State Assemblymember Maritza Davila. Photo courtesy of Davila’s office
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Last year, I was informed that the Department of Homeless Services had placed families at a commercial hotel in Bushwick. I was outraged. Homeless families deserve better — they deserve a facility actually designed to help get them back on their feet, not one meant to fill a gap for the time being. As an elected official — we deserve better communication from the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) about what is happening in our communities. 

Having been a client in the homeless services system with my own young children, I understand the trauma of being homeless. I know how hard it can be to wake up every morning in a shelter, prepare your kids for school and make it to work on time. I can only imagine how much harder it must be to wake up in a hotel room in a random neighborhood far from home without kitchens.   

In a country as wealthy as the U.S., there is no reason why a working mother should struggle to put food on the table and a roof over her children’s heads. Yet 70 percent of the people in our homeless services system are families — many of whom have working parents. Indeed, there are 24,000 children in shelters in New York City.

This is why I support Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to get out of 360 commercial hotel facilities and cluster apartment sites where homeless New Yorkers don’t have access to sufficient services needed to get back on their feet. As we get out of these sites that currently house 18,000 homeless New Yorkers, we need to create a solid plan to tackle this crisis by not only providing short term shelters, but a long-term solution of creating more affordable housing stock. 

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The most important component of the mayor’s proposed new homeless plan is the emphasis on community. To mitigate the challenges of homelessness, we should prioritize keeping homeless families and individuals close to their home communities, schools, social networks, and houses of worship. This way a child doesn’t need to spend 90 minutes each way on a school bus traveling across boroughs and a mother can remain connected to her church and local physicians.

In Bushwick last year, DHS opened a new 100-bed shelter for men. We worked with the administration to ensure that men placed in this facility were from the Bushwick community and adjacent neighborhoods. Although we had concerns at first, the community was able to have an open dialogue with DHS through the planning and opening phases. At this site, clients receive access to job training and health care, and access to housing specialists and placements services that will help them get back on their feet.  Even after some initial consternation this facility has fit into the neighborhood and to date, has had not a negative impact on the community. I think of it as a place where my neighbors are staying temporarily, while they receive assistance to get back on their feet.

This new shelter for local residents is a better model than renting expensive rooms in a hotel. I have visited with the families in the hotel in Bushwick. My staff and I mobilized volunteers from the community to donate gifts over the holidays and we will continue to marshal resources to support these struggling families. 

But these families should not have to rely on three microwaved meals a day. Across the five boroughs we must end the use of commercial hotels to house the homeless by opening facilities with robust services that keep families and individuals close to their home communities and back into permanent affordable housing.

Though initially this administration had difficulty communicating with communities I am pleased the de Blasio administration has committed to strengthening notification protocols to inform elected officials and neighborhoods about where DHS plans to have a presence in our neighborhoods. In turn, as elected officials and community leaders, we must recognize that homeless New Yorkers are our neighbors, sisters, brothers, co-workers and friends. We owe it to them to support a plan that will have real opportunities to get back on their feet as best we can.

 

State Assemblymember Maritza Davila is a Democrat for District 53 (Bushwick- Williamsburg-Greenpoint).

 


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