[SUNSET PARK] All new hotel construction is suspect, locals say

See this story at BrooklynPaper.com.

By Caroline Spivack

Brooklyn Paper

They’re not buying it.

Sunset Parkers fear that a new hotel going up at the corner of 30th Street and Fourth Avenue will wind up like several other area inns and become a homeless shelter.

“Yeah right, a hotel, I’ll believe it when I see it,” said Silvia Velasquez, a lifelong Sunset Parker reacting to the construction. “Hotels are showing up all over the place here and renting to the homeless. How can we trust that it’ll be what it says it is?”

The city operates five “temporary” shelters in hotels around Sunset Park and Green-Wood Cemetery — the latest to open was on 24th Street between Third and Fourth avenues, where what was supposed to be a Howard Johnson hotel is now renting 41 rooms to the indigent for the next 6–12 months.

The news has totally soured locals on new hotel construction, one community leader said.

“I spoke to the owner [of the 30th Street building] and he said, ‘Why does everyone think we’re building a shelter?’ and I said because you’re building a hotel,” said Community Board 7 district manager Jeremy Laufer. “That’s what happens in Sunset Park.”

Reach reporter Caroline Spivack at [email protected] or by calling (718) 260–2517. Follow her on Twitter @carolinespivack.

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[SUNSET PARK] All new hotel construction is suspect, locals say : Brooklyn Paper