April 15, 2014

Sex offenders taken out of Skyway shelter

4-15-2014 New York:

The city has removed 39 Level 2 and 3 sex offenders from the Skyway homeless shelter in South Ozone Park, Councilman Ruben Wills (D-South Jamaica) announced at Community Board 10 last Thursday.

“We have been going back and forth with the Department of Homeless Services for weeks about the issue and they have removed every sex offender from the shelter as of today” the Councilman announced to applause.

The facility, a former motel at 132-30 South Conduit Ave. on the outskirts of JFK Airport, houses over 100 people and has been controversial since it changed from a family shelter to a men’s shelter in February 2011.

That change happened without anyone in the community knowing. Two blocks from the shelter is PS 124 and across the Belt Parkway is a park frequented by neighborhood children.

The shelter change in 2011 was also controversial because several children who lived there attended PS 124 and were forced to relocate halfway through the school year.

The Department of Homeless Services assured the community several times that security was tight at the shelter, which has 174 beds, but made no assurance that sex offenders wouldn’t be placed there. However, parents and area residents, however, still expressed concern about its effect on the neighborhood. ..Continued.. by Queens Chronicle

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