By Courtney Dentch
Despite protests from the southeast Queens community and elected officials, about 60 families are now living in the city homeless shelter at the former Best Western Carlton House hotel just north of Kennedy Airport.
The families began moving into the hotel, at 138-10 135th Ave. in South Jamaica, on July 4, the day after more than 150 people gathered outside the hotel to protest the proposed shelter and a week after a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge approved the proposal to allow the bankrupt hotel to open as a shelter.
The judge’s decision gave the JFK Acquisition Group, the hotel’s owner, the right to negotiate a temporary lease agreement with the Salvation Army to convert the hotel into a shelter. The Salvation Army can then lease the shelter to the city’s Department of Homeless Services, said Jim Anderson, a spokesman for the city agency.
The contract enables the facility to operate until Sept. 30, and DHS is now looking at a proposal for a long-term contract that would extend the temporary arrangement, Anderson said.
The contract, which the agency hopes to have in place by October, would allow the facility to operate for five years with two options to renew the contract for up to a total of 15 years, Anderson said.
The new long-term proposal was the subject of a public hearing held by DHS Monday afternoon, and Queens representatives took the chance to again voice their disapproval of the plan. Area politicians and residents are concerned that the shelter could have a negative impact on the community’s economy and schools. They contend the area is already saturated with homeless shelters.
About 25 people attended the public hearing, Anderson said, including elected officials such as state Assemblywoman Michelle Titus (D-Far Rockaway) and Borough President Helen Marshall. Marshall spoke at the hearing, saying the area is already saddled with its share of homeless shelters.
Community Board 12, which stretches from downtown Jamaica to the airport, encompasses 12 homeless shelters housing more than 950 families. These include the Saratoga Interfaith Inn, one of the largest Tier II shelter in the city housing almost 250 families, which is just two miles away.
A Tier II shelter means the facility can house a family for a maximum of 27 days while they and the city search for permanent housing. The proposed shelter at the Best Western Carlton House is also slated to be a Tier II facility.
“Southeast Queens already has absorbed more than its fair share of homeless and other shelters,” Marshall told the hearing.
Marshall also expressed concern that the shelter might upset the economic development in the area, including the AirTrain light rail link at JFK and the national retailers moving into downtown Jamaica.
“Billions of dollars in public and private funds have been, and we hope, will continue to be spent on the redevelopment and improvement of JFK Airport and other areas of southeast Queens,” she said. “The Best Western Hotel site sits in the midst of this economic boom.”
Other hotels around Kennedy Airport are worried the shelter could scare off customers or force their rates to drop, said Peter Garcia, assistant general manager of the Radisson Hotel, which is next to the Best Western site. Some of the shelter’s residents have come into the Radisson to use pay phones, and Garcia is concerned that the hotel’s guests could be affected, he said.
“We’ve already had issues with it,” he said. “They come in with their strollers and take up room in the lobby.”
Reach reporter Courtney Dentch by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com, or by phone at 229-0300, Ext. 138.
