![]() ![]() Officials at City Hall said Monday that the city has invested “hundreds of millions of dollars” in its previously underfunded shelter system, including the Wards Island facility. “This place is a nightmare,” said a shelter resident, who would only identify himself as Marvin, to The Post. The residents said the city did have the bathrooms recently cleaned - but only in anticipation of the tour by Williams and the other officials, who brought reporters with them. You have people with knives here and razors. You have people hollering and bugging out at night. “They will s–t and throw up in the shower before they do it in the toilet. “People will piss on the floor before they piss in the toilet,” he told The Post. Gerald Patterson claimed the shelter is unsanitary and unsafe for residents. Gerald Patterson, 54, who has lived at Clarke Thomas for three years, called the facility “nasty. “It’s better in the street than it is in here, and I’m in a wheelchair saying that,” he said. “The conditions here are deplorable - roaches, mice, flies,” said shelter resident Anthony Simmons, 52. On Monday, residents at the shelter griped about the “abhorrent” conditions that they say remain unaddressed at the isolated facility. Shelter resident Anthony Simmons called the conditions “deplorable.” James Messerschmidt for NY Post Last year, a former shelter resident launched a petition drive to bring attention to what he called a dire situation at the center, blaming the city Department of Homeless Services for the alleged unsanitary conditions and creating a hotbed for COVID-19. ![]() The visiting officials blamed the state of the shelter on Mayor Bill de Blasio, saying the city hasn’t done enough to help the homeless men placed in the facility - which they noted is physically far from the mental-health and counseling services that many require. “This place does not foster growth and development,” he said. ![]() Public Advocate Jumaane Williams touring the facility on Wards Island on August 30, 2021. “It was so bad that it led me to increasing my drinking, and (it) developed into a major problem. “I remember how horrible this experience was,” said DaBaron, who once lived at the shelter, to the press. ![]() The group, which included “Da Homeless Hero” Shams DaBaron, a onetime vagrant New Yorker-turned-activist, addressed reporters outside after the tour. “If you have COVID, it’s going to spread in there,” said Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who led the tour with Levin and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer. New York City officials slammed the unsafe conditions at Clarke Thomas Men’s Shelter on Wards Island. The critics Monday said social distancing is non-existent at the facility - even in the midst of a resurgence of the pandemic - with beds no more than 2 feet apart and masks rarely donned by residents. The harsh take on the 233-bed shelter off Hell Gate Circle is just the latest slap at the city-run facility, long the target of complaints from homeless residents and advocates. “Nobody should be in this building right now.” “Nobody should be here,” City Councilman Stephen Levin told reporters outside the Clarke Thomas Men’s Shelter. The troubled men’s homeless shelter on Wards Island has continued to deteriorate into an unsanitary COVID-19 nightmare, a group of elected city officials said after touring the facility Monday. Homeless services officer attacked by city shelter resident Staffer at Wards Island mental hospital dies from coronavirus Man who allegedly tried to strangle cop with chain is psych facility resident ‘Violent’ sex offender brutally raped 61-year-woman: cops ![]()
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