On Friday January 7, 2022, the New York City Department of Homeless Services will be again moving houseless people from a hotel in Manhattan to a hotel in Queens during a raging pandemic endangering their lives. This is irresponsible and incredibly dangerous considering the transmissibility of Omicron, the latest mutation of Covid-19.
A resident has informed me that Mentally Ill Chemical Abuse (MICA) clients and non-MICA clients will be housed together at their new location, City View Inn, in Long Island City Queens. New Life Shelter, a congregate shelter run by nonprofit Institute for Community Living, was formerly at 78 Catherine Street but clients were moved in 2020 to the Doubletree by Hilton located at 128 West 29th St when the COVID-19 pandemic began.
There seems to be no explanation as to the move while clients aren’t given enough notice to prepare, both physically, emotionally and mentally. If City View Inn is a hotel then why does one of the notices state it is a “congregate dorm”?
Unnecessarily endangering people while New York City currently accounts for more than half of the more than 11,000 COVID patients hospitalized statewide shows that NYCDHS doesn’t care whether the people in New Life Women’s Shelter live or die.