The 81 room Glo Hotel across the street from PS 172 at 30th Street has been fully converted to a Men’s Shelter.  This hotel was built as a “bait and switch” project in the neighborhood.  It went up over a year ago with a sign labeling it as a hotel, but it was a shelter from day one of opening last year.  Since the Glo Hotel sign has been recently covered, it’s fully transitioned to a “temporary” permanent shelter.  The area suddenly has unexpected strangers panhandling, public intoxication, vagrancy, nudity, masturbation, public urination, public defecation, verbal abuse, harassment, loitering, fights and illegal drug activity.  There has been a man sleeping on the school sidewalk in the same spot near the schools entrance for at least two days now starting on Monday, August 10 through Tuesday, August 11th. 

No one in the community nor the school administration was notified of this change in advance.  Local residents have also not been informed of where the “men” in the new men shelter came from.  And since the city is considering them temporary residents for an indefinite amount of time, they have not confirmed if there are sex offenders in any of the 81 rooms they occupy.  This is a tight knit community, people know their neighbors and local business owners and employees.  Now no one knows any one of these 81 men within 100 feet of this elementary school. 

Sunset Park now houses the largest population of displaced shelters in New York City.  Over the past 5 years there have been dozens of new hotels that have been converted to permanent temporary shelters in Sunset Park in the area surrounding PS 172.  PS 172 Beacon School of Excellence is a Blue Ribbon School Winner and known for its remarkable leadership from principal Gundersen and her amazing dedicated team of teachers, staff and administrators.  The school is located in the most diverse and underserved neighborhood in all of New York City.  It also his home to the most decrepit infrastructure with the oldest sewer system in the City which combines rain water with sewage.  Whenever it rains, the drains back up and many residents get floods on their first floors.  Our local elected officials continue to allow new construction without fixing our aging infrastructure and now our city government is using hotels as phony fronts to relocate a significant amount of homeless to the area dramatically increasing the population and playing a greater strain on our already taxed system.  It is because we have low voter turnout that the city has also decided to decrease our liter basket pickups and let trash overflow in the waste bins surrounding the school compared to our neighbors in Park Slope.  

In addition, there is another hotel under construction across the street on the other side of PS 172 at 29th Street.  The signage has it labeled Wingate by Windham hotel but if it’s anything like all of the other hotels in the neighborhood our elected officials will turn it into a shelter before it even opens.  This under construction hotel is at least 3 times the size of the Glo Hotel and will directly pose an even greater threat to the students, teachers, staff and administration at PS 172 if used as another men’s shelter. The signage on the hotel notes Green Citi Management as the leaders in construction on this project, however if you call the number listed on the sign someone from Green Citi Management will tell you they are no longer working on the project and they couldn’t comment on who the new company is in charge and it is not listed anywhere on the signage.  This site is also located within 100 feet of the entrance to PS 172 sandwiching the school in between the two shelters. 

Nothing about what is going on with the elected officials in front of PS 172 is fair and it’s directly impacting the safety of the students.  Safety will negatively impact their learning and emotional well-being. 

PLEASE SUPPORT:

By signing this petition you agree to support:

1.    Students for a fair chance at learning in a safe environment surrounding PS 172. 

2.    Demand that the men’s shelter at the former Glo Hotel across the street be relocated to another district that is not in front of an elementary school. 

3.    Prevention of any new construction like the one across the street on 29th to be used as a shelter.