By Bill Parry
After watching and reading accounts of protests and town hall meetings against new homeless shelters in East Elmhurst and Elmhurst, City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside) kept quiet because the controversy lay outside his district.
Then he decided to act after taking part in an administration meeting at City Hall, where a deputy mayor spoke about the crisis in western Queens.
“Lilliam Barrios-Paoli talked about the number of children who are homeless and how disheartened she was at the public reaction at the Pan American Hotel,” Van Bramer said. “She said we had to get to a better place where people understand what these families have gone through. I thought, what if I tell my story and dispel the myths and stereotypes.”
So he wrote an op-ed piece that disclosed a family secret about how when he was a boy his Woodside family became homeless and had to live in a shelter for six weeks.
“My family’s journey into and out of homelessness began like so many others then and now,” Van Bramer wrote. “Dad was drinking heavily, money got tight, some poor decisions were made and a family teetered on the brink of despair as a result.”
The family of four eventually moved into a small tenement apartment and his father, who was 25 years old at the time, was able to stabilize his life with the help of friends.
“Even though I was an infant at the time, I thought it was important to tell my story so people could see this can happen to just about anyone,” Van Bramer said. “I want people to be more compassionate and give people a hand up when they’re down.”
He hopes that people who protest against the shelters at the Pan American Hotel and the Westway Motel have a chance to read his essay.
“I hope they remember that no one wants to be in a shelter, no one wants to be homeless,” he said. “If we humanize and put a face on the homeless, it makes it harder for people to yell at them.”
Van Bramer hopes the children living in the Boulevard Family Center in the Pan American Hotel have a chance to read it as well.
“Maybe it could be an inspiration for them so they think, ‘We can do this, we can get to a better place,’” he said. “Now, after working hard to put myself through St. John’s, I’m a councilman and a homeowner. Not everyone stays homeless. They can go on to do great things.”
Van Bramer added that both of his parents had reservations about sharing the family secret.
“My dad wanted to make sure it didn’t hurt me and my mom is more private,” he said. “But they both felt that if it would help anyone in that situation, then we should, and I’m glad they agreed with me.”
Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparry@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
