The Fairfield Inn at 52-34 Van Dam St., set to become a shelter facility for homeless adult families.
Feb. 21, 2018 By Nathaly Pesantez
The Fairfield Inn by Marriott in Long Island City is set to become a shelter for adult families.
The hotel, located at 52-34 Van Dam St., will provide shelter for up to 154 homeless families, according to the Department of Homeless Services. The shelter is expected to open in March.
The agency notified the community board and elected officials of their plans on Feb. 13.
The shelter will be a high-quality transitional housing facility under de Blasio’s “Turning the Tide” initiative put forth early 2017 to tackle homelessness. Under the mayor’s plan, cluster sites through the city will be eliminated while multi-service facilities like these are set to open. For this shelter, priority will be given to families with roots in Community Board 2.
The Van Dam Street facility will be operated by Home/Life, a non-profit service provider. Programs like case management, housing placement assistance, health and mental health services, and employment counseling will be offered on site for residents. Other services include screenings and intervention for those with substance abuse disorders, and yoga and nutrition classes.
On-site security will be provided 24 hours a day, with two officers at the entrance to control building access and monitor security cameras. The DHS also installed 95 security cameras through the building and across the shelter grounds as an added measure.
“This high-quality facility will be the first of its kind in this community district, offering 154 adult families from Queens the opportunity to be sheltered in their home borough, closer to their support networks and communities they called home as they get back on their feet,” said Isaac McGinn, press secretary for the DHS.
Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Long Island City) said the upcoming facility under the mayor’s plan is just another hotel being re-purposed as a shelter.
“It’s important that the city provide individuals and families who are experiencing homelessness with shelter and resources, ensuring opportunities for them to find work and permanent, affordable housing,” said Van Bramer. “However, DHS has been reckless in their use of commercial hotels as temporary shelters throughout Queens and especially in this district.”
He added: “The Mayor’s Turning the Tide plan on getting out of hotels as shelters and bringing balance to each community board is simply not working….the Mayor and the Department of Homeless Services are failing us here.”
The DHS is currently using three commercial hotels within CB2 to provide shelter to nearly 530 New Yorkers. The locations include the City View Inn, housing single men since last month, the Best Western housing families, and the Quality Inn on Queens Boulevard.
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40 Comments
It is March now yet I don’t see anything happening at this hotel. What a crappy news! whoever is trying to bring down this business; are going to get their ass sued!
There is a community board 2 meeting regarding this matter being held on Thursday March 1st @ 6:30 PM at the sunny side center located at 43-31 39th street Sunnyside NY 11104. The press has been contacted and we are ready to fight this. please spread the word, lets take back our neighborhood! if we don’t show up, they wont listen.
Also, I have created an online petition please sign and share!
Hi,
I just signed the petition STOP THE PROPOSED HOMELESS SHELTER OPENING AT THE FAIRFIELD INN BY MARRIOT 5234 VAN DAM ST at iPetitions.com and I’d really like you to join me in supporting this important cause.
Please visit the following link to sign the petition and help me make this cause a success:
https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/stop-the-proposed-homeless-shelter-opening-at-the
Thanks for your support!
Thanks Local Business Owner. We will be there. We need to expose the corruption here, the inflated hotel rates, the not-for-profits who operate these hotels and the connection between not-for-profits and the LLC’s that own the hotels, these are the the friends of the mayor who raised millions of dollars for his campaign.
Any updates from the meeting?
I’ve wondered about this “hotel” since it was built. It’s in a very industrial area–no perceivable residential housing or services nearby. Why would anyone want to book a room there? Now I get it. However, I fear it’s a dumping ground for homeless people. There are no grocery stores nearby, no medical clinics, no public transportation that I can see (maybe a bus?). Just block after block of business that aren’t related to day-to-day or neighborhood living. People get outraged by those who drop off unwanted animals in the middle of nowhere so they can’t find their way home. That’s what this is–the middle of nowhere.
There is a coterie of “hotel” owners who expressly build in industrial zoned areas, because the can. Zoning enabled these neighborhood busters and profiteers, partly because they employ people and they are a business.
That’s it, UNLESS THE CITY CHANGES THE ZONING TO EXPRESSLY EXCLUDE hotels, motels and other set-ups, this crime will continue, against workers and owners of NY city businesses, and fellow citizens, whether needed housing because of homelessness, or just struggling along, to pay the taxes being converted to cash income by the “Patel-motel” types. (There is a famous family of motel owners named Patel.) THE ZONING NEEDS UPGRADING.
Seems to me they are running a prison. These people will be our new neighbors. Where are the Sunnyside Moms to receive them with open arms? They will need
On-site security which will be provided 24 hours a day, with two officers at the entrance to control building access and monitor security cameras. The DHS also installed 95 security cameras throughout the building and across the shelter grounds as an added measure. 95 security cameras for added measure for what? Why all the security? Well it’s to make sure their pimps, prostitutes, drug dealings do not occur on the premises. Some of them are ungovernable, they don’t follow the same rules the rest of us do, they don’t respect the law. It will spill over to the community, when the local parks turn into a shooting galleries and some little toddler hands his mommy a used syringe then what? All this is so wrong, it’s amazing that we are being hoodwinked and robbed in clear site of our tax dollars.
counsel person Mr. JVB knew all about this from the beginning – don’t let him kid
anybody — he likes to play the game oh I did not know –
The FAKE MRLIC wrote the February 23, 2018 comment about ME the REAL MRLIC. He is a really carrying this too far. I wish the LIC POST had a way for me to be the only MRLIC instead of copycats like him/her. Recaptcha did not help that.
The FAKE MRLIC wrote the February 23, 2018 comment about the FAKE MRLIC.
Signed,
— ME the REAL MRLIC
Is this fake news? I asked my manager who’s currently working for this property and it was not confirmed to be true.
it is true –
100% true
If this keeps up eventually the property values in the area will go down.
I’m currently working for the property.Will this have any effect towards the employees?
Yes it’s unfortunate but you will lose your job. They will bring in minimum wage part time contractors to deal with the homeless drug addicted disfunctional families coming to the hotel. This is why they need yoga instructors to teach them techniques in self control and meditation, in house drug program so they can deal with drug/chemical dependency and a nutritionist since they are not healthy eaters. The City will pay about $200 per night for a room which you can get for $99.00 per nite on trivago or booking.com and you anonymous friend will be out of a job because of the corrupt policies of Mayor DiBlasio.
Better start looking for another job – it isn’t going to be a hotel anymore – it is going to be a “facility” to try to rehabilitate people to be able to function in society. They won’t need hotel employees they need minimum wage caretakers and security guards.
Sorry for your loss.
The FAKE MRLIC wrote the February 21, 2018 and the February 22, 2018 comment on Bowling Alleys. My comment was also on Feb 22,2018 about the 29 hotels planned for LIC.
The FAKE MRLIC wrote the February 22nd, 2018 comment about the FAKE MRLIC.
I don’t know who these clowns are, but this is the real MRLIC.
As I’ve noted before, we have too many hotels in the neighborhood and this is a positive development. We are finally building a local economy here; housing for the homeless in hotels rooms is an industry that not many other neighborhoods are pursuing. We are actually on the cutting edge, I think.
I am asking you legally to stop using the MRLIC username. I have retained an attorney and he assures me that the site can be compelled to identify the pretenders.
Very Sincerely,
The REAL MRLIC
How can we stop this? I am a nearby business owner who gets a significant amount of my business from guests staying at the hotel! Its a disgrace to the community. We already have 5 other shelters within walking distance. The city is forgetting all of the local businesses and residents that are now being affected by this. It’s outrageous, someone has to put a stop to this!
call all of the newspapers and get in touch with Marcia Kramer — DiBlasio can’t stand her — get on this quickly –
Wonderful! Did the community have any input on this?? This is not the first hotel in our area being turned into a homeless shelter. Enough already!
It’s an emergency! You only deserve 24-hours notice.
This emergency has only been going on since 1980 but de Blasio only noticed it yesterday–it’s Progressive GROUNDHOG DAY time.
The builders of the facility cynically presupposed a daily line of money from the City of New York, for single rooms, occupied by families. Hotel rates, please, in a building on industrial zoned land.
This is a racket. Please let the Mayor, City Department of Investigation, Attorney General and FBI find the cash pipeline for payoffs all around. Meantime, communities are not built this way, and as the buildings go derelict, whatever is left of the “Marriott” brand will be soiled.
This is a scheme, a racket and a crime. The alternative is to build and use dedicated temporary housing for low income homeless families.
If you follow the money and check who the founders of these not-for-profits are, where they originated and who their accountants (CPA’s) are, and who the (CPA’S) are for the Best Western/Verve, Marriot Fairmont, La Quinta Inn and other Homeless Hotel’s and who owns the hotels, and check the LLC’s under which they operate, and who their attorneys are and then follow the former DHS officials who are now employed as executive directors & CEO’s of these not-for profits who facilitate the procurement of these contracts with DHS, it will all lead you to the promised land of Boro Park and Williamsburg and back to Mayor DiBlasio. There is no interest in providing affordable housing and creating real housing for working class families, there’s no money in it.
Sunnyside LIC Post: Want to win a Pulitzer prize for Investigative Reporting and bring down our corrupt Mayor, then report on the connection between the Brooklyn power brokers who raised $10 Million dollars for DiBlasio’s campaign, the Hotels Owners and their LLC’s and the not-for-profits who manage the hotel homeless shelters providing services at inflated prices and how they are all interconnected and it all leads back to the Mayor and his relationship which started back when he was a councilman. Using homeless people to enrich themselves and fleecing NYC Taxpayers to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.
I’d like to know how much tax payer money is being funneled to subsidize a failing hotel industry thanks to the innovative disruption of AirBnB.
Another homeless hotel at the cost of $5,000 per room per month for free for these homeless families on the backs of New York Tax Payers. This is the biggest waste of taxpayer money in the history of NYC. A select powerful group owns the hotels under LLC’s, then they have a not-for-profit operate the shelter for DHS — like this one Home/Life founded in 1995 — charging DHS for room rental, outreach, security and other services at inflated rates. The couple who founded this organization Home/Life also operate other homeless shelters in the Bronx “Star Bright Family Residences” and others throughout the city. There is collusion between the owners of the hotels, the Not-For Profits owners and the Mayor. The dots must be connected back to the Mayor and contributions to his treasure chest. There is a web of corruption with ties to power brokers, a syndicate in Brooklyn who control the shelter system in NYC. They raised over $10 million dollars for DiBlasio’s run for mayor. You must follow the money to understand this. Jimmy Van Bramer should put some distance between himself and Mayor DiBlasio and stand up for our community.
The Dumblasio administration has 29 more hotels planned for the LIC area from what I have read. How many will turn into Homeless Shelters?
Real question is how many will be immediately opened as shelters and planned that way?
Check plans, Is the Dept. of Buildings approving blueprints for hotels or shelters?
DumBlasio should focus on opening more bowling alleys instead of compassionate community outreach like homeless shelters.
Although I am outraged that you continue to impersonate me, I have to admit…DumBlasio is comedy GOLD! You may wanna take that shtick down to the stand up club. Seriously.
DumBlasio. You’re KILLING me…..
HaHaHaHaHa….I CANNOT stop laughing. That’s too much!
Exactly. And they’re still going to build that Japanese hotel on Jackson Avenue by the 7 train where the empty lot is. I’m not sure why this is OK. Hotels aren’t needed at all.
We need to stop building these little hotels in residential areas. They can not survive on the few customers they get and then rent to the City to stay in business. It is time for the council people to stop these hotels by not approving them in their areas. That is where we can start!
Someone stop them before they build that 50-story Japanese hotel by the 7 train
Great news, we should show compassion for low-income families instead of GREEDY real estate developers like Trump.
Agreed. Around here, if you become homeless you not wanted and seen as a negative. These homeless people are our neighbors and cannot live on the street. There are many reasons for being homeless.
I have no problem with homeless people being sheltered. I have no problem with some of my tax dollars going towards paying for them to have shelter. I DO HAVE A PROBLEM with the fact that these “Shelters” cost more per room per month than a fancy 1+ bedroom apt on center blvd. If a hotel must turn into a shelter, it’s pricing must follow suit. That said, I am also super interested in the investigatory journalism angle and look forward to seeing Christian and the POST crowd blow the lid off this corrupt Mayor and friends.