CORONA, Queens (WABC) — Dozens of homeless people who have been staying at a hotel for months in Queens are being kicked out, with barely any notice, they say.
In the shadow of the elevated 7 train, the Flushing Meadows Hotel, which is now a city shelter for single men is hardly ideal living, but it was still startling when the residents learned on Thursday, they have to leave… now.
“They didn’t even give us short notice, they just woke us up and told us that we had to pack our stuff,” one resident said.
Some residents were told they had to leave Thursday night, others were told they had to leave by the morning.
Residents did not want to appear on camera, fearing the city might retaliate against them.
The shelter, residents were told, is being converted to house migrant families from Venezuela. It has pushed the city to make difficult choices.
The New York residents who have lived in this shelter for months, many of whom have jobs and families nearby, will have to go.
“Everyone is just concerned,” one resident said. “My anxiety is a little high right now, there’s a lot going on and I’m not really sure where it will end.”
The crisis at this hotel is the result of the massive influx of immigrants in recent months, a crisis that has sent the mayor of New York to Mexico looking for solutions and help.
But there is no help for the residents of this shelter, who have been told they may have to move to shelters in the Bronx or even Staten Island.
“I honestly don’t think it’s fair because I already pay taxes as it is, I’m already living in the shelter and being that this is my first time going through the shelter system, to get treated like this at a time when I need the help of the city, that’s already crazy in itself,” one resident said.
The residents Eyewitness News reporter Jim Dolan spoke with said the shelter provides case workers who are attentive and have helped them get jobs and get on a track where they could leave the shelter system if they had a little more time.
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