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Residents of Upper West Side Homeless Shelter Thankful for Services as Community Keeps Watch

By Serena Solomon | April 5, 2010 12:57pm | Updated on April 5, 2010 12:33pm
The W. 107th Street where Mary now lives.
The W. 107th Street where Mary now lives.
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DNAinfo/Serena Solomon

By Serena Solomon

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

UPPER WEST SIDE — While community leaders were caught off guard when a local hotel was converted to a temporary homeless shelter seemingly overnight, some of the shelter’s residents have lauded the safe conditions and care they have received since it opened earlier this year.

In January the city Department of Homeless Services, citing the recent rise in homelessness across the city, established the temporary, 80-woman shelter at the West Side Inn on W. 107th Street.

The department used an “emergency declaration” to bypass the normal community approval process to open the shelter, creating questions among local resident over the space’s security and the type of support the women would receive.

"They have a good plan for everyone that comes here," said Mary, a 62-year-old Nigerian immigrant and shelter resident.

Mary, who did not want to give her last name for fear it would harm her job prospects, moved to the United States eight years ago and had been sending money back to her family. After seeking treatment for diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis, she suddenly found herself without a job and homeless.

She explained that security guards at the shelter make her feel safe, and recalled one time when a woman was moved to another shelter after she was caught drinking alcohol.

"Clients at W. 107th St. benefit from individualized assistance and case management," a department spokesperson noted in an e-mail. "Clients also receive funds for transportation, meals three times a day [provided by an outside vendor] and funds for laundry in the community."

A nonprofit organization, HELP, was contracted by the department to operate the shelter, and clients like Mary have received assistance with their résumés from another nonprofit called Dominican Sunday.

Now Mary is hopeful she will find a job as a cleaner or cook, and be able to move into her own apartment.

"I am thankful to God," Mary said about the services she’s received at the shelter. "America is a good country."

Initial complaints from local residents — including concerns that the shelter would attract perpetrators of domestic violence, who some of the women might have been fleeing — led the department to back off a plan to make the shelter permanent and increase its capacity to 135 women.

Instead, the shelter will keep its population capped at 80 and will close in December.

Department of Homeless Services Commissioner Robert Hess will address any lingering concerns at a community meeting on Thurs., April 8 at the Church of the Ascension, 221 W. 107th St., at 7 p.m.