Last week's West Side Spirits article on hostels and the government's plan to change some of them to homeless shelters also referenced Harlem. The city has a program that would pay a hostel or SRO owner $1,000 per month on a room which would be double the rate of what these establishments currently charge. The building referenced in the article is on the northern reaches of the the upper west side but we noticed that the Spot Hostel on West 126th Street (between Lenox and 5th Avenue) was also in question. It turns out that the block association is not having it and are protesting the planned men's homeless shelter that the city has eyes for in this Central Harlem location. Read more about in the West Side Spirit: LINK. Photo of the Spot Hostel by Ulysses
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
☞ READ: City Converts Hostels for Homeless
Last week's West Side Spirits article on hostels and the government's plan to change some of them to homeless shelters also referenced Harlem. The city has a program that would pay a hostel or SRO owner $1,000 per month on a room which would be double the rate of what these establishments currently charge. The building referenced in the article is on the northern reaches of the the upper west side but we noticed that the Spot Hostel on West 126th Street (between Lenox and 5th Avenue) was also in question. It turns out that the block association is not having it and are protesting the planned men's homeless shelter that the city has eyes for in this Central Harlem location. Read more about in the West Side Spirit: LINK. Photo of the Spot Hostel by Ulysses
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so many pay lip service to the problem of homelessness but so few are willing to walk the walk,
ReplyDeleteI’d take a well run shelter or SRO on my block over the vacant, abandoned buildings any day of the week.
Exactly... where are the homeless supposed to live? Opposition from block associations is straight up NIMBYism-- people want to see homelessness addressed until they talk about housing them on their block. I bet the homeless would make less noise than the European tourists that frequent the hostels in Harlem who stand outside smoking all night.
ReplyDeleteKudos to the block association for taking care of their block, this block like so many blocks in Harlem where neglected and abused for so long, now block associations are finally appearing and taking pride in their blocks, keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteI would say as a person of supporting homeless, its a good thing but moving into a neighborhood where there is 4 shelters on one ave, It can be annoying, unless the shelters have control of the tenants. I moved from harlem into a neighborhood that has 3 mens shelters 1 womans shelter its not a good look when they want to hang out in the front. I just say as long as they have #1 CONTROL
ReplyDeleteHarlem already has a disproportionate number of homeless shelters. There is nothing wrong with not wanting another shelter uptown.
ReplyDeleteThere are a whole group of people, brokers included that think everything below 125th is coveted,now they want to include 126th!get over it...this is New York City, if you want perfect, if you want to be cool,and not have to look at reality while you sip your designer coffee move out of the city, and please don't say anything about Harlem, we have homeless all over the world.
ReplyDeleteWe have to take care of the homeless, that's just the right thing to do butwhen a shelter opens the prices of the properties on the block go down, and the people living on the block suffer. That's why the opening of a shelter should be done responsibly. When a shelter opens, the city should improve the block by creating incentives so companies/investors could be attracted to that neibhorhood .
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