City turns upscale building in Crown Heights into homeless shelter

[Liberal_in_LA]

Source: NY daily news

Granite countertops. Terraces. Marble bathrooms. Walk-in closets.

The homeless are livin' large in Brooklyn.

The city is paying hundreds of thousands of dollars a month to rent luxury condos in a Crown Heights building for homeless families, the Daily News has learned.

"It's like a hotel. It's the nicest place I've ever lived in," said Nelson Delgado, 36, who moved into a swanky two-bedroom, two-bath pad two weeks ago.

"It's beautiful," added Delgado, an out-of-work truck driver from Miami who's living with his son Jeff, 17. "The closet in the main room is so big you could put a twin bed in there."

Raymond, another resident who moved in more than a week ago with his wife and two young daughters, said he is still trying to get over his good luck.

City officials said the condos - which couldn't attract buyers in the fizzled housing market - are part of an effort to help an "unprecedented" number of homeless families who have ended up on the street because of the tough economy.
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Luxury condos for homeless: Angry neighbors say vagrants 'living better than we are'


When Nik-ki Coles first saw a luxury condo building going up near her Crown Heights home, she took it as a sign the neighborhood had finally turned a corner.

When the building suddenly became a homeless shelter, she took it as a slap in the face.

"It's gorgeous. We were under the impression that it was going to upgrade our community," said Coles, 37, who grew up in the neighborhood and works as an office manager for a Manhattan dentist.

"I work hard every day putting two girls through college," she added, saying she was awestruck by the high-end amenities when she took a tour last week.

"To walk over there and see that folks in a shelter are living better than we are, it's not fair."

http://www.nydailynews.com/real_estate/2009/06/04/2009-06-04_neighbors_angry_vagrants_living_better_than_we_are.html

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/real_estate/2009/06/04/2009-06-04_city_turns_upscale_building_into_homeless_shelter.html

[Norrin Radd]

1. Yikes! Such disgustingly selfish comments at the link.

[Jkid]

2. General Summary of those Selfish Comments...

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWW

[Dappleganger]

8. They seem pretty tame

compared to the comments I read regularly in the Jacksonville online websites anytime someone reports on Habijax or anything good happening for the poor. A few months ago there was a story about an entire street of homes being painted and spruced up, compliments of the city and the comments there were absolutely disgusting. It is quite true that Jacksonville is South Georgia.

[UpInArms]

3. the woman was excited when luxury condos were being

built because she thought it would benefit HER.

She became angry when the benefit became shared with POOR people.

hmmm...

[WriteDown]

11. Uh...

She said the neighborhood. If you'd ever lived up there, you'd understand why.

[cali]

21. actually, because she thought it would benefit her community

and her response is simply human. She's not some fat cat. she's obivously struggling middle class.

[JerseygirlCT]

25. Yeah, I cannot blame her

Everyone wants their neighborhood to be looking up, and everyone is concerned about real estate prices and the sort of place they live. I understand that.

OTOH, anyone just upset that the homeless are living better than they are should be comforted with the fact that as soon as things turn around, those homeles are all too likely to find themselves back out in the cold. If they have a nice respite now, let them enjoy it.

[Libertas1776]

4. Well

that's what they get for allowing developers to overdevelop and build luxury condos on every plot available. NYC is the prime example as well as a relic of the greed and excess of the past decade.

[rucognizant]

5. The Meek......

SHall inherit the earth!

[Dappleganger]

9. +1

[Norrin Radd]

7. It's happening here in Seattle, as well.

[AlphaCentauri]

6. neighbors should not be angry if it is just a temporary refuge

for homeless families

[WriteDown]

12. Agreed....

I wonder how temporary it will be though. The cynic in me also makes me wonder how long it will remain nice.

[alarimer]

10. These are the same people who are NIMBY when the city wants to build a shelter.

The neighbors around here were all up in arms over a planned low-income housing project, saying it would lower property values. People are fucking selfish pieces of shit. I hate humanity, I really, really do.

[WriteDown]

13. Just makes sense...

For better or for worse, low income housing right next door tends to lower property values. I don't hold it against people for wanting to keep theirs as high as possible. Especially in the worst market most have seen.

I can tell you a story from when I lived in NY in the 70's. There was some sort of program. I think it was called "scatter siting" where they would place low income housing in high end neighborhoods. The unintended consequence was that the people in the high end neighborhoods ended up just moving away due to increased crime, graffiti, etc. It was a mess.

[Odin2005]

16. Yeah, right; sounds like make up, bigoted excuses made to get away from the poor.

And treated as "official truth" because it fits the interests of the rich to have the poor portrayed as dirty criminals.

[WriteDown]

17. Do some research instead of making baseless attacks...

How many wealthy neighborhoods do you see with a low income housing complex within them? Those who are wealthy have the freedom(money) to move away. The poor are not so fortunate.

[Odin2005]

19. Excuse me for being skeptical about the motivations for such convenient explanations.

:eyes:

[LeftyMom]

22. My neighborhood, for one

There are multi-million dollar houses a block from low income housing. Plenty of middle-class single family homes and nicer apartment communities too, plus businesses catering to all income levels.

As long as low income housing is properly managed and maintained, it's no detriment to a neighborhood.

[Odin2005]

15. People that can only think of propery values need a punch in the face!

They are the kind of people that rise to become the tyrannical rulers of so-called "homeowners associations and keep people from doing things like drying clothes outside because it might "lower land values". They can go fuck themselves.

[WriteDown]

18. Looks like Sam needs that punch....

sam sarrha Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Sat Jun-06-09 04:02 PM
Response to Reply #1
3. i left California because i couldn't find a job.. if i did i worked in a sea of Mexicans, got layed

off day before benefits opened up.. our community had to close the city parks and fence them in with 8' chain link with razor wire coils on top because of the gangs.. i had 2 friends stabbed.. relatives being driven out of their homes by gangs driving at high speed in convoys of several cars firring automatic weapon's out of both sides into homes. my relative had 4x8 sheets of T2 steel bolted to the walls, they sat and slept on the floor, carried guns in their own homes.

property values were destroyed, they couldn't sell or afford to move out.

in our little community illegal aliens out numbered the resident children in the primary schools, those children were illiterate in their own language and didn't speak english.. the state hired teachers from mexico some didn't speak english. they had a program called bi-lingual ed.. our neighbors girl was the token english speaker 5th grade, the class was taught in spanish, she didn't speak spanish.. they parked her with toys,, the shit hit the fan when they held her back that grade and didn't tell the parents there was any problem till the last day of school.. she had been intimidated to not tell what went on in the class.. her parents sued the ass off california.. big settlement.. and the state had to provide private school and tutors till she was back to grade level

funny, not ha ha, thing was that in California ronald reagan had fucked up the education system so bad as governor that 25 years later only 2 of 7 students were at or near grade level, 3 to 4 of 7 weren't literate enough to fill out a job application or read a newspaper. my nephew graduated high school and couldn't read a tv guide, couldn't multiply or divide 2 digit numbers.. couldn't find 1/4 inch on a tape measure. i remember the news.. there was news then.. they said that if reagan had left office his first year as gov, it would take 20 years to fix what he fucked up, i was forced to drop out my junior year because he declared war on collages, dis funded them, all student aid and loans dried up

california is totally fucked up.. LA has hijacked ~80% of the state funds, central/north california got shit on and ripped off, they will never recover. my brother a police captain said they want to bankrupt the state and reorganize by privatizing everything what they don't eliminate, and mine off what wealth is left in the rest of the state
http://www.counterpunch.org/wormer1011.html There can be no peace as long as there is grinding poverty, social injustice, inequality, oppression, environmental degradation, and the week and small contenue to be down-troddden by the mighty and powerful. HHDL
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[Odin2005]

14. The response by the neighbors sucks. What evil, bigoted, selfish pople.

A good, kind person does not react by saying "To walk over there and see that folks in a shelter are living better than we are, it's not fair.", good and kind people don;t wish to pull people down over jealousy.

[Vidar]

20. Good for Brooklyn.

[and-justice-for-all]

23. It should be good rehabilitation for those people..

a positive difference in their lives to help get them back on their feet and hopefully working again.

[NJCher]

24. Republican thinking

They love to pit people against each other and they've been doing it for decades: welfare queens is just one example.


Cher