From The New York Shitty Inbox: Disambiguation About “The Petition”

A person I call CHAT writes:

I have found resistance to the petition because people are not sure whether they are signing against it or signing because they want more information.  I don’t have the answer.  I have contacted John Liu’s office and have received a call today from Jorge, who is I believe in charge of public relations.  He has told me that the comptroller only gets the contract after it goes through other agencies, in this case being the Department of Homeless Services.  He claims that they only yay or nay it depending on if it is legal and financially sound.  They are not a liaison for the community in this capacity. He said that while he is happy to answer questions and point people in the right direction to obtain info or to voice their concerns and that as far as his office is concerned this is non-existent because they do not have any contract in their office as of yet.  He suggested that I contact DHS, our councilman, assemblyman, and senator and also attend the community board meeting (while it is not obligatory for HELP USA to attend as they are not a city organization).  I emailed Seth Diamond at the DHS with my questions via this site.

To disambiguate:

1. The petition is against the shelter.
2. The notice I wrote emphasizes the fact HELP USA seems not to be interested in dialoging with our community. A community which has (as many have observed) a homeless problem. To put it country simple: how can a Representative of DHS, Department of Homeless Services, assure us that having a 200 bed homeless intake shelter will not effect our quality of life when even he does not have any specifics about it? How will our homeless problem— which let’s face facts— is quite unique in nature be addressed if HELP USA won’t come to the table and discuss it with they very people who are familiar with it? The answer is: it won’t be.
3. HELP USA has been asked, no less than three times, to meet with the community where their shelter will located. And while it is HELP USA’s right to refuse, does this foster much faith if/when their shelter graces our community? It doesn’t.

For the above reasons I would advise anyone who wants an open dialogue with HELP USA (regardless of their stance on the shelter) to make it known! To them, our elected officials and Community Board. On a closing note, here is a notice about said shelter in Spanish. I created this because quite frankly I was very disturbed by the lack of awareness about this shelter in our local Latino community. They, above all others, will be impacted by this shelter more than anyone.

Miss Heather