6 Month Later Impact of Sandy Downtown

When should free housing end?

Sandy Victims to Be Cleared From Hotels
NY REGION April 26, 2013, 11:08 p.m. ET

By JOSH DAWSEY
New York City plans to remove by Tuesday 196 households displaced by superstorm Sandy who are living in city-paid hotel rooms, a move some City Council members and homeless advocates said could force the families to live in homeless shelters.

Six months after the Oct. 29 storm, some 488 households—or almost 1,000 people—remain in the hotel program, which has cost the city $40 million and was to end Tuesday. A separate Federal Emergency Management Agency program has 248 households in New York and was extended until May 29 after the federal government said it couldn't yet move everyone into permanent housing.

The move to shut down the city program brought criticism from members of the council's General Welfare Committee, which called an emergency hearing Friday. Protesters descended on City Hall's steps before the hearing, then packed the committee room, cheering and jeering speakers.

In a letter dated Friday and addressed to Seth Diamond, commissioner of homeless services, Speaker Christine Quinn wrote, "While we agree this program cannot continue indefinitely, we question whether the April 30 deadline is realistic for those remaining 196 households that do not qualify for the housing options currently available."

Officials from the city's Department of Homeless Services said ending the program was inevitable and case workers had offered a range of housing options to the Sandy refugees remaining in hotels. New York City has spent $15 million on those efforts, Mr. Diamond said.

The city has offered 400 New York City Housing Authority units and 150 vouchers to get people into homes under the federal Section 8 public-housing program, he said. For 292 households in the process of moving, he said, the hotel deadline was extended to the end of May.

But Mr. Diamond said 71 households had been shown but rejected private apartments that matched their income levels. The residents didn't embrace the apartments for a variety of reasons, including that they didn't like the neighborhoods in which they were situated, he said.

Also, some 125 households don't qualify for NYCHA units due to criminal records; because they have immigrants without legal status to remain in the U.S.; they had previous NYCHA problems; or because people are single and studio units aren't now available, Mr. Diamond said.

"But we haven't found enough people to qualify for the 400 units," he said in an interview. "…Right now, there is no option that can help them."He said he expects many who are still in hotels would find housing, now that the Tuesday deadline is so near.

But many on the council said ending the program would lead to an influx in the city's shelter system, which already houses record numbers of people. They also said they were skeptical of whether appropriate apartments had been shown to the 71 households and questioned whether caseworkers had been effective.

Several homeowners said they'd been given wrong information by caseworkers, and council members read a list of emails from aggrieved residents.

"You need to re-evaluate and make sure the case work is done adequately and that DHS has eyes on the organizations," said Donovan Richards, a councilmember from Far Rockaway, Queens, who referred to the groups whop have provided case workers. "Don't say for a moment there is no issue with caseworkers."

Mr. Diamond said a handful of the 800 families who previously left the hotel program over the past several month have ended up in homeless shelters. He said there had been some problems with caseworkers but that overall they had had been excellent.

Ayanna Diego, who stood with other protesters on the steps of City Hall steps before the hearing, blasted caseworkers for not connecting with her for months. Ms. Diego, a 37-year old lifelong Rockaways resident, said Sandy flooded her home and left mold caking the walls. She lived in the LaGuardia Plaza hotel with her 18-year-old son until earlier this month, when she was told to leave the program. Now, she lives in her mold-infested house, she said.

"The city system looks like it wants to turn its backs on us," she said. "I fell through the cracks, and they kicked me out. No one wants to help us."

A version of this article appeared April 27, 2013, on page A17 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Sandy Victims To Be Cleared From Hotels.

Six months later the escalators at Staten Island Ferry are still not working...

They are moving the building electrical, etc. to the rooftops from the basements. THey should start increasing development in areas that are at higher elevation like upper manhattan.