The city is renting dozens of hotel rooms in a new Queens luxury apartment-and-hotel complex.
The Kew Gardens building at 123-28 82nd Avenue contains a hotel run by Comfort Inn with 84 rooms and 38 luxury units in a residential part of the building, dubbed “the Kewl.” The city began using the hotel rooms as a homeless shelter on Friday, according to DNAinfo.
Homeless single men are currently living in 19 hotel rooms, and the Department of Homeless Services expects it will eventually fill all the rooms. Tenants at the Kewl and local Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz have voiced their unhappiness with the decision.
Mayor Bill de Blasio plans to stop using hotels as shelters by 2023, but the hotel is currently the only spot in Queens Community District 9 where the homeless can go, according to DHS. The agency said it intends to find new shelter space for the more than 300 homeless people in the neighborhood. [DNAinfo] – Eddie Small