Post by Prosay on Jan 5, 2018 22:56:34 GMT -5
nydailynews.com
NYC routinely put homeless families in prostitute-friendly hotels
BY James Fanelli Greg B. Smith
6-7 minutes
The city placed homeless families in a hot-sheet hotel in the Bronx — despite warnings from a city employee that prostitutes were turning tricks there, the Daily News has learned.
In fact, the NYPD made prostitution arrests at 21 of the 57 hotels where the city sent homeless families with children last year, a Department of Investigation report released Thursday charged.
“Clearly, it is not safe to house children and families in hotels where people are running large-scale prostitution operations,” said Investigation Department Commissioner Mark Peters. “These are some of the most vulnerable New Yorkers, so there’s an extra obligation to keep them safe.”
At a Days Inn on Brook Ave. in Morrisania, for instance, women in lingerie openly paraded about, escorting men into rooms down the hall from families with children, the department alleged.
Long before the Department of Investigation report in early 2016, a rookie Department of Homeless Services worker sounded the alarm, according to emails obtained by The News.
The worker told Homeless Services supervisors that residents and staff at the hotel had told him about open sex trafficking and brazen violence there.
“The residents are scared, and the RAs (resident assistants) are also concerned,” he wrote in an email dated Feb. 22, 2016. “There are families with children, and then there are the other rooms which have prostitution going on.”
He noted that NYPD officers were showing up “multiple times per night because of violent altercations between the customers and the pimps.”
In an April 1, 2016, email, the worker’s supervisor, Jeannette Murdaugh, addressed his allegations that the hotel was operating as a “brothel” with “prostitutes in various states of undress roam(ing) the halls with their pimps.”
Murdaugh rejected the tipster’s interpretation of the activity, writing, “You must be nonjudgmental and consider race and culture in your work with families.”
She accused him of misunderstanding the situation due to bias, saying his accusations “reveal a pattern of racial and cultural insensitivity, which is unacceptable and if it continues may result in disciplinary action.”
The whistleblower, who is white, lost his job months after informing his supervisor about the brothel and after his emails made their way to top Homeless Services officials, including Yumi Nielsen, assistant commissioner for strategic planning.
On Thursday Homeless Services spokesman Isaac McGinn confirmed that the agency looked into the tipster’s allegations but found no evidence of the activity alleged.
At the time, the agency did not as a matter of protocol check for police activity at hotels, and McGinn was unable to say if the agency made such a check in response to the tipster’s accusations.
The Department of Investigation, however, discovered that from January through August, the NYPD made five prostitution arrests at the Days Inn.
Department investigators talked to one homeless client at the Days Inn who said she’d seen women in lingerie leading men into rooms on several occasions. She said a man approached her to say he knew she was homeless and offered her work as a prostitute to make “extra income.”
The report also described “promoters” sitting in the Days Inn lobby directing clients to rooms, telling the hotel clerk “he’s with me.”
City probers found similar activity at another hotel, a Bronx Super 8 on Southern Blvd. in Crotona Park. There were seven prostitution-related arrests there from Jan. 1, 2017, through September.
At the Super 8, investigators found a pattern Homeless Services should have noticed indicating illicit activity: seven people paying for stays of at least 15 nights, including one who booked rooms on 53 nights. The “guests” always paid in cash.
When the Department of Investigation informed the city about the family-unfriendly activity at Days Inn in June, Homeless Services removed all the families. Since then, the agency has booked every room at both the Days Inn and Super 8 “to avoid further exposure to illicit activities,” the Investigation Department stated.
Probers noted that when booking families into hotels, Homeless Services only looked at location, rates and code compliance — not criminal activity or unusual booking patterns.
In response to the city report, Homeless Services last month began teaming up with the NYPD to check criminal histories and watch for these patterns. They started with hotels with the most arrests, including a Manhattan hotel with 10 prostitution collars, one drug bust and three assault arrests.
“We share (the Investigation Department’s) concerns and thank them for shedding light on this issue,” said Social Services Commissioner Steven Banks. “We are working closely with our NYPD management team to evaluate remaining as well as new locations to ensure the safety of our homeless families as we phase out the use of commercial hotels once and for all.”
Both the Bronx hotels cited by the Department of Investigation were used by an accused pimp, Adrian Brooks, who was busted by the FBI in October, officials said.
Brooks was charged with using minors as prostitutes, plying his “workers” with addictive drugs and using violence to keep them in line.
NYC routinely put homeless families in prostitute-friendly hotels
BY James Fanelli Greg B. Smith
6-7 minutes
The city placed homeless families in a hot-sheet hotel in the Bronx — despite warnings from a city employee that prostitutes were turning tricks there, the Daily News has learned.
In fact, the NYPD made prostitution arrests at 21 of the 57 hotels where the city sent homeless families with children last year, a Department of Investigation report released Thursday charged.
“Clearly, it is not safe to house children and families in hotels where people are running large-scale prostitution operations,” said Investigation Department Commissioner Mark Peters. “These are some of the most vulnerable New Yorkers, so there’s an extra obligation to keep them safe.”
At a Days Inn on Brook Ave. in Morrisania, for instance, women in lingerie openly paraded about, escorting men into rooms down the hall from families with children, the department alleged.
Long before the Department of Investigation report in early 2016, a rookie Department of Homeless Services worker sounded the alarm, according to emails obtained by The News.
The worker told Homeless Services supervisors that residents and staff at the hotel had told him about open sex trafficking and brazen violence there.
“The residents are scared, and the RAs (resident assistants) are also concerned,” he wrote in an email dated Feb. 22, 2016. “There are families with children, and then there are the other rooms which have prostitution going on.”
He noted that NYPD officers were showing up “multiple times per night because of violent altercations between the customers and the pimps.”
In an April 1, 2016, email, the worker’s supervisor, Jeannette Murdaugh, addressed his allegations that the hotel was operating as a “brothel” with “prostitutes in various states of undress roam(ing) the halls with their pimps.”
Murdaugh rejected the tipster’s interpretation of the activity, writing, “You must be nonjudgmental and consider race and culture in your work with families.”
She accused him of misunderstanding the situation due to bias, saying his accusations “reveal a pattern of racial and cultural insensitivity, which is unacceptable and if it continues may result in disciplinary action.”
The whistleblower, who is white, lost his job months after informing his supervisor about the brothel and after his emails made their way to top Homeless Services officials, including Yumi Nielsen, assistant commissioner for strategic planning.
On Thursday Homeless Services spokesman Isaac McGinn confirmed that the agency looked into the tipster’s allegations but found no evidence of the activity alleged.
At the time, the agency did not as a matter of protocol check for police activity at hotels, and McGinn was unable to say if the agency made such a check in response to the tipster’s accusations.
The Department of Investigation, however, discovered that from January through August, the NYPD made five prostitution arrests at the Days Inn.
Department investigators talked to one homeless client at the Days Inn who said she’d seen women in lingerie leading men into rooms on several occasions. She said a man approached her to say he knew she was homeless and offered her work as a prostitute to make “extra income.”
The report also described “promoters” sitting in the Days Inn lobby directing clients to rooms, telling the hotel clerk “he’s with me.”
City probers found similar activity at another hotel, a Bronx Super 8 on Southern Blvd. in Crotona Park. There were seven prostitution-related arrests there from Jan. 1, 2017, through September.
At the Super 8, investigators found a pattern Homeless Services should have noticed indicating illicit activity: seven people paying for stays of at least 15 nights, including one who booked rooms on 53 nights. The “guests” always paid in cash.
When the Department of Investigation informed the city about the family-unfriendly activity at Days Inn in June, Homeless Services removed all the families. Since then, the agency has booked every room at both the Days Inn and Super 8 “to avoid further exposure to illicit activities,” the Investigation Department stated.
Probers noted that when booking families into hotels, Homeless Services only looked at location, rates and code compliance — not criminal activity or unusual booking patterns.
In response to the city report, Homeless Services last month began teaming up with the NYPD to check criminal histories and watch for these patterns. They started with hotels with the most arrests, including a Manhattan hotel with 10 prostitution collars, one drug bust and three assault arrests.
“We share (the Investigation Department’s) concerns and thank them for shedding light on this issue,” said Social Services Commissioner Steven Banks. “We are working closely with our NYPD management team to evaluate remaining as well as new locations to ensure the safety of our homeless families as we phase out the use of commercial hotels once and for all.”
Both the Bronx hotels cited by the Department of Investigation were used by an accused pimp, Adrian Brooks, who was busted by the FBI in October, officials said.
Brooks was charged with using minors as prostitutes, plying his “workers” with addictive drugs and using violence to keep them in line.
