ELMHURST — The family shelter at the former Pan Am hotel will remain open even though the city's comptroller has refused to issue a contract to the provider, officials said.
On Monday, Comptroller Scott Stringer denied an application by provider Samaritan Village to make the Boulevard Family Shelter permanent, citing serious health issues that the Department of Homeless Services has yet to fix.
But the shelter, which opened in June 2014 under an emergency contract, will not close, according to the mayor's office.
The comptroller's rejection of the contract won't close the Pan Am shelter, which will continue to operate under the existing contract. Stringer's decision will only stall the process, which "doesn't help those in need," a spokeswoman with the mayor's office said.
A spokeswoman for Samaritan Village said managers would assess any safety issues at the shelter and address them immediately.
“We take the health and safety of the residents at the Boulevard Family Residence very seriously," the spokeswoman said.
Stringer's decision follows media reports on shelter conditions, including a "rat colony" that feasts on garbage outside and a DNAinfo New York report on the residents' lack of access to a kitchen, which violates a legal mandate.
A spokesman for the comptroller's office, Eric Sumberg, said the comptroller had several concerns about the Pan Am shelter that led him to deny the contract — from unclear information on when necessary fixes would be made to a lack of monitoring by Homeless Services.
After the contract was denied late Monday, the mayor's office spokeswoman said it would send "SWAT teams" to more than 500 shelters, part of a new initiative the mayor announced this week.
It's not the first time the comptroller's office has rejected permanent contracts for city shelters.
In 2013, then-Comptroller John Liu denied contracts for two shelters, saying it wasn't clear how many people they would help, according to reports at the time.
Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg went on to sue the comptroller's office, reportedly saying the rejection couldn't be used to "usurp the mayor’s authority to enter into contracts.” Bloomberg ultimately won the court challenge and a judge ordered Liu to register the contracts.
Many politicians who represent Elmhurst praised Stringer's move at the Pan Am, which has generated controversy since it opened nearly a year ago.
"All of our city’s residents, including our homeless population, deserve to live in a clean, safe and dignified environment," Assemblyman Francisco Moya said. "The report made clear that our homeless shelters are not living up to our expectations."
