City To Give Shoddy Queens Shelter $2 Million Facelift

A Queens shelter where homeless families complain of holes in the walls and mattresses, leaky pipes and broken plumbing, is slated to get $2 million in renovations, City officials said.
The Jamaica Assessment Center, where the City spends at least $2,400 a night per room each month to house homeless families, is already undergoing $180,000 in roof repairs, said Robert Mascali, first deputy commissioner of the Department of Homeless Services.
The project, which Mascali said has been in the planning stages for three years, will also include an $830,000 upgrade for the buildings interior, scheduled to begin next spring, as well as $1 million for exterior work, to commence by the end of 2002.
Exclusive photographs published in last weeks Queens Courier show that rooms for homeless families at the facility have holes in the bathroom walls and mattresses, badly chipped paint, and old sheets serving as blinds.
"We hope that with these repairs there will be a substantial improvement," said Mascali. "Im glad that we had a chance to revisit this issue."
Several homeless families also complained that their rooms and the common spaces, including the cafeteria are often infested with mice and roaches.
Mascali said that the DHS cleans all of its homeless facilities on a daily basis.