EAST ELMHURST— A family shelter will open Monday inside a former hotel near LaGuardia Airport, a city official said.
Families will move into the shelter inside the former Clarion Hotel, at 94-00 Ditmars Blvd., on Monday, a spokeswoman with the mayor's office confirmed.
The shelter will be operated by CAMBA, who will also provide on-site social services and counseling to help families find a permanent home, the official said.
It's not clear how many residents will live at the three-story hotel, which was renamed "The Landing" last year and has 169 units.
State Sen. Jose Peralta, who represents the district, blasted the new shelter in a statement Monday.
“My constituents are very understanding of the necessity of the city's obligation to house the homeless, as well as understand that anyone is a paycheck away from being homeless," he wrote. "But, the fact that the city seeks input after the fact is nothing but a Bloomberg or Giuliani tactic of shoving a homeless shelter down a community' s throat.”
The city said DHS notified the community and elected officials of the plan at least seven days before the shelter was set to open, a mandate which was introduce last summer after public outcry over the Pan Am Shelter in Elmhurst.
Community members and officials weren't notified before shelter residents moved into the Pan Am Shelter, the former hotel on Queens Boulevard. That shelter reapplied for a permanent contract with the city, records show, after the comptroller rejected it twice, citing conditions at the facility.
