Homeless housing angers residents

Meadowmere Park residents are angry that the nearby Holiday Inn, at the intersection of Brookville Boulevard and Rockaway Turnpike in Rosedale, Queens, is housing homeless people — mostly men — from New York City.
According to Meadowmere Park community members, homeless people occupy 75 of the hotel’s 205 rooms, and are being housed two to a room. The Holiday Inn did not respond to requests for comment.
Greta Guarton, executive director of the Long Island Coalition for the Homeless, said that many of the hotel’s occupants were placed by the Department of Homeless Services of New York City. “I double-checked, and the shelter in that hotel is operated by the city,” Guarton said. “They would be considered New York City residents.”
Camille Rivera, the deputy commissioner of the Department of Homeless Services, in New York City, said that she wasn’t able to confirm any details about whether any homeless people were placed at the Holiday Inn. “We have a history of using hotels to place homeless people,” she said. “I don’t think we have any people placed there at that hotel.” As for how many people her department places in hotels, their ages, or any other details, she wasn’t able to comment.
Meadowmere Park residents say they have seen the hotel’s homeless residents panhandling and urinating in public. From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., when the hotel staff cleans and maintains the rooms and property, its occupants roam Rockaway Turnpike and, residents say, venture into their neighborhood, which is less than a half mile from the hotel. With the weather improving, they say they are concerned that the situation will worsen.

Diane Kirchner, a resident who organized a community meeting at the Meadowmere Park firehouse on April 29, said she was upset for several reasons. “There’s been no transparency,” she said. “They were placed within one mile of a park and within close proximity to the [Lawrence] high school. The only way we found out about this situation was when there was a small fire in the hotel building three weeks ago and they all had to evacuate.”
Kirchner said she had called M&R Management, a Great Neck-based company that operates the Holiday Inn, but had received no response. As of press time, the Herald’s calls to the management company had not been returned, either, and were redirected to the hotel’s onsite manager, who also did not respond.
Ruth Samuelson, the president of the Meadowmere Park Civic Association, said that the area isn’t the best place for homeless people to find employment. “If they want to look for work, this place isn’t good for them,” she said. “Where could they go? With only a bus line and a few stores, they can’t find work here. There’s no real access to public transportation for them.”
Another resident, Jennifer Bouderau, said she worries about her three children, ages 12, 5 and 4. “This is not a good situation,” she said. “It’s affecting our kids now. On a Friday night a few weeks ago, my kids were outside playing soccer, and ended up coming in early. It’s scary to our kids, and this situation hits too close to home.”
Assemblyman Todd Kaminsky (D-Long Beach) and County Legislator Carrie Solages (D- Elmont), who attended last week’s meeting, said they would contact other leaders and investigate how the decision was made to place homeless people at the hotel.
Kaminsky expressed the concern that some of them could be registered sex offenders. “Nassau County currently has no [local] sex offender law,” he said. “We have to make laws for what we do with them.”
Solages asked residents to be specific about what they see. “Are there any reported crimes yet?” he asked. “Start a paper trail of incidents. Report to authorities what you’re seeing and experiencing.”

Have an opinion about the issue of accommodating homeless people in local hotels? Send your letter to the editor to jbessen@liherald.com.