Department of Homeless Services311Search all NYC.gov websites

DHS Administrator Carter and DSS Commissioner Banks with a VOA volunteer at the Operation Backpack Sort Space Warehouse

FOR PLANNING PURPOSES ONLY

August 28, 2017

Contact: Isaac McGinn (mcginni@hra.nyc.gov, o: 929-221-5564, c: 646-946-9667)

DSS COMMISSIONER BANKS, NYS ASSEMBLYMEMBER FRANCISCO MOYA ANNOUNCE PHASE-OUT PLAN FOR HOLIDAY INN ON HORACE HARDING EXPRESSWAY

City ending use of all 50 rooms at Holiday Inn by 2019 as part of Mayor’s Turning the Tide plan

NEW YORK—On Tuesday, August 29, Department of Social Services Commissioner Steven Banks and Assembly Member Francisco P. Moya will announce that the Holiday Inn Express is being completely phased out as a location providing shelter to homeless New Yorkers by 2019, reducing commercial hotel usage in this Council District by 50 percent. Out of 61 total shelter facilities in Queens, more than half (35) are commercial hotel facilities. As part of the Mayor's plan for addressing homelessness, we have committed to completely ending the use of all 360 cluster and hotel sites citywide, including all 35 commercial hotel facilities in Queens, which include the more-than 100 commercial hotel rooms currently in use in this community.

As the City ends use of ineffective stopgap measures and phases out all 360 cluster sites and commercial hotel facilities, which have built up in a haphazard way over many years, DHS is increasing high-quality traditional shelter capacity citywide, reducing the number of Department of Homeless Services’ facilities by 45 percent across New York City while providing the flexibility needed to implement a more equitable and effective borough-based system that offers homeless New Yorkers the opportunity to be sheltered in their home boroughs, closer to their support networks, like schools, family, healthcare, houses of worship, and communities they called home as they stabilize their lives.

Media interested in attending should RSVP with Isaac McGinn at mcginni@hra.nyc.gov.

What: Announcing phase-out of all commercial hotels used to shelter homeless New Yorkers in Council District 21, beginning with the close-down plan for the Holiday Inn Express
When: Tuesday, August 29, 2017
11:00AM–12:00PM
Where:

82-11 37th Avenue
Jackson Heights, NY 11372

Who: Department of Social Services Commissioner Steven Banks
New York State Assembly Member Francisco P. Moya

 

###