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BROOKLYN WEEKLY, MARCH 10, 2019
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
Street smarts
Sunset Parkers plan to survey area homeless
for info they say the city won’t provide them
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-theirluck
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.”