Street smarts
Sunset Parkers plan to survey area homeless
for info they say the city won’t provide them
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BY RACHEL ETTLINGER
They’re hoping these questions lead to
some answers.
Sunset Park civic leaders hope a
new survey they plan to give occupants
of the neighborhood’s homeless shelters
will help them in their quest to get
those vulnerable residents the support
they need, while maintaining the quality
of life in the community — where locals
for years accused the city of dumping
transients with little to no notice .
Last year, leaders of the local Community
Board 7 and its ad-hoc Committee
on Homelessness doubled down on
the panel’s efforts in the area , after the
city increased the number of beds for
transients in Sunset Park to 825, dozens
of which offi cials installed inside
neighborhood hotels. And after failed
attempts to get the head of the city’s
Department of Homeless Services to
address the issue with the board , its
members are turning to local homeless
themselves to gain clarity on the
agency’s operations in the district.
“We want to know, are there caseworkers
on each hotel, and how can we
contact them,” Karen Rolnick, chairwoman
of CB7’s Homelessness Committee,
said at the panel’s Feb. 25 meeting.
“We’ve had issues with one or two hotels.
We want to make sure everything
is properly funded.”
In addition to asking local homeless
about the number of caseworkers at
district shelters — which include three
traditional sites and six commercial
hotels being used as emergency shelters
— the 3-year-old committee’s nine
members want to query transients
about who is in charge on- and off-site
around the clock, what populations the
shelters serve, and what specifi c resources
they offer occupants, according
to internal documents the panel
circulated at the recent meeting.
“These questions are to keep the
lines of positive communication open,
so that we can take action if there are
needs that are not met by clients of the
shelters and also that of the community,”
read the documents.
Committee members hope to fi -
nalize the survey this week, and then
plan to split up into teams of two and
go from shelter to shelter in order to
collect answers in time to share their
fi ndings at the panel’s next meeting in
April, according to Rolnick.
But those who ask the questions
must do so in a conversational, engaging
way in order to make their subjects
comfortable enough to give them honest
answers, said one local in attendance.
“Have a regular conversation with
them,” said Florence Delgado, who lives
on 49th Street, and is pursuing a degree
in social work. “We can start off by
drafting a few questions we would want
to ask, but then start thinking about how
we’re going to ask these questions.”
Delgado, who said she lives on the
same street as one of the homeless facilities
in the neighborhood, applauded
the survey scheme, claiming it will
generate more understanding and compassion
for those down-on-their-luck
shelter occupants that Sunset Parkers
share their community with.
“I feel like it’s going to lead to something
positive,” she said. “I’ve spoken
to some of the members in residence;
one of them is a pastor. Another one is
a teacher, whose house burned down
with everything inside.”
HOMELESS HOTEL: The Sleep Inn on 22nd
Street between Third and Fourth avenues is
one of six hotels in Sunset Park housing transient
locals. File photo by Caroline Spivack
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