OPINION: Integrating shelters into fabric of our communities
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.