NYC moved 100 people off Rikers and into a Fresh Meadows hotel

Councilmember Barry Grodenchik will tour the Wyndham Gardens Hotel in Fresh Meadows, where more than 100 people are staying after the city moved them off Rikers Island. Google Maps

By David Brand

More than 100 people released from Rikers Island are being housed at a Fresh Meadows hotel as part of a city initiative to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among formerly incarcerated New Yorkers.

The city is putting up the formerly incarcerated New Yorkers at a Wyndham Garden Hotel on 186th Street to keep people out congregate homeless shelters, officials said. The Office of Emergency Management and the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice are overseeing the program.

The city paid for rooms in the hotel because the individuals did not have stable housing and would have otherwise become homeless, said MOCJ spokesperson Colby Hamilton. A handful of other hotels around the city have served the same function.

“This and other hotels have provided an invaluable network of stable, reliable lodging for those in need, keeping people departing the jail system out of congregate housing, while we work with them to find more permanent living solutions going forward,” Hamilton said.

The individuals were released from Rikers Island because they have pre-existing medical conditions that put them at particular risk of COVID-19, he said.

Local Councilmember Barry Grodenchik said he was blindsided by the city’s plan.

“We found out because people started calling the office from the community,” Grodenchik said. “We didn’t get advance notice. At all.”

Grodenchik said he and members of Community Board 8 will tour the facility Wednesday.

The employee who answered the phone at the Wyndham Gardens hotel directed questions to City Hall Tuesday.

“This information is confidential and we cannot give information about who is staying with us and if you want more information you can call the Mayor’s Office,” the official said.

In a letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio and local elected officials, a group of community members condemned the lack of information leading up to the decision to house formerly incarcerated New Yorkers in the hotel. 

“My main concern is the lack of transparency and community involvement in this decision-making process,” said Alliance of Bukharian Americans co-founder David Mordukhaev, one of the local leaders who drafted the letter. “In our particular situation, no one has come out to consult or discuss or even give any options.”

The letter, signed by “concerned community members of Fresh Meadows, Jamaica Estates, Hillcrest, and Hollis” said neighborhood residents are” justifiably worried about ex-inmates living next door to their children.”

“While we understand that exigent circumstances require quick decisions, our community is shocked that we were not involved in the decision to bring ex-inmates to our neighborhood,” the letter continues. “We do not know if this is a long term solution of a temporary one. The lack of transparency is as troubling as the uncertainty surrounding the safety of our families.”