By Tom Momberg
Mayor Bill de Blasio made an appearance in Queens Monday to announce the creation of SWAT Teams to address critical repairs needed in city-funded homeless shelters following a Department of Inspection report that entailed hundreds of code violations at several shelters this spring.
The SWAT Teams will be comprised of hundreds of existing city employees from the Fire Department, the Department of Buildings, the Department of Homeless Services, Housing Preservation and Development and the Department of Health to identify and examine additional violations and order repair work as needed.
The SWAT project was included in the $100 million budget boost to homeless services entailed in de Blasio’s 2016 Executive Budget he released last week.
“These SWAT Teams are necessary, because we are not dealing with a problem that just started in the last year or two. We are dealing with a problem that is decades old and has gotten worse for several reasons,” de Blasio said at a press conference at the Corona Family Residence, a homeless shelter in Queens.
Some of the issues listed in DOI’s inspection of 25 shelters citywide, which de Blasio ordered, included safety and security, as well as poor conditions and rodent or pest infestations. The DOI found 600 code violations among the shelters inspected, including six in Queens.
Most of those violations have since been addressed, but de Blasio and DHS Commissioner Gilbert Taylor said this new initiative will address violations for all of DHS’ hundreds of housing providers and work with staff to ensure poor conditions do not reoccur.
The SWAT Teams are projected to have finished repairs and fixed violations at each site by the end of the calendar year.
Reach reporter Tom Momberg by e-mail at tmomb
