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.