Published in the Courier News, Sunday, September 2, 2007
Park Hotel license renewed for year
The state Department of Community Affairs has renewed the Park Hotel's license for another year, spokesman Chris Donnelly said Friday.
In May, Assemblyman Jerry Green called for closure of the 182-bed facility that serves mentally-disabled people, saying the residents should be relocated to small group homes.
On Friday, Green said the facility is outmoded and said he still hopes the state Department of Health and Senior Services will find more suitable places for the residents. He said a new state policy is not to have more than 12 people live in a group setting.
The license renewal is good until Aug. 31, 2008.
Green said the residents wander around during the day, and he wants the management to make a plan to curb loitering. Green said the owners also need to make a safety plan for the hotel and added that he hopes the owner will meet with Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs to discuss the hotel's future.
Representatives from the Park Hotel could not be reached for comment Friday.
Link to online story here. Archived here.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
Showing posts with label Park Hotel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Park Hotel. Show all posts
Sunday, September 02, 2007
Friday, May 25, 2007
Park Hotel - Ledger - Assemblyman urges closing
*
Published in the Star-Ledger, Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Lawmaker urges closing of group home
He opposes the renewal of Plainfield facility's license
BY ALEXI FRIEDMAN
STAR-LEDGER STAFF
A Plainfield group home that for decades has served nearly 200 special-needs adults, including the mentally disabled, faces an uncertain future now that the city's powerful assemblyman wants it closed and residents relocated.
The facility, the Park Hotel Board Home, is the largest of its kind in Union County and lies in the city's downtown business district, making it a target as Plainfield continue its push for retail and residential development.
In asking the city council to consider opposing a license renewal for the Park Hotel -- the license expires Aug. 31 -- Assemblyman Jerry Green said the institution on West Seventh Street and Arlington Avenue is antiquated and cannot adequately care for its residents.
Green also wants the council to seek a moratorium from the state on future group homes in Plainfield because most are nonprofit organizations exempted from paying property taxes.
The Park Hotel, a for-profit, 182-bed facility housed in a six-story building, is also tax exempt [note by DD: this is an error, the property IS ON THE TAX ROLLS].
Any action by the council would serve only as a recommendation once time comes for the state to renew or revoke the Park Hotel's license.
Such a license would only be revoked if the facility has significant violations or had opened without a license, neither of which is the case with the Park Hotel, according to Sean Darcy, a spokesman for the state Department of Community Affairs.
Thee assemblyman made his case to the council Monday night, saying Plainfield has welcomed its share of social service agencies over the past 30 years and that it's time for other municipalities to do their part.
The point, Green said, is not to throw residents on the street.
"I want to make it very clear, we're concerned about people in that facility first," said the assemblyman, who is chairman of the Legislature's housing and local government committee. The Park Hotel is regulated by the Department of Community Affairs and its residents are overseen by the Department of Human Services.
Green said he wants to work with the state to find other locations in the county and wants the city to help him in that effort, sending the message "that we're prepared to do whatever we can to make sure these human beings are treated fairly. Currently, they are not."
Calls to Park Hotel officials for comment yesterday were not returned.
In a letter to city council President Rayland Van Blake, the assemblyman cited a trend in mental health services toward smaller institutions with fewer than 20 beds.
"The state would not approve a facility such as the Park Hotel today, given changes in policy," he wrote.
Green also posed his request as a public safety issue, saying Park Hotel residents "roam the streets of Plainfield," adding that merchants in nearby stores have complained about their behavior.
While individual merchants may feel that way, Lisa Cohen, who heads up the Plainfield Special Improvement District, said she has not heard such criticisms from members. Cohen is also owner of Suburban Jewelers on East Front Street.
In fact, some Park Hotel residents occasionally stop by her store to make small purchases or to say hello, she said.
Still, Green's plan was warmly received by several council members, including Rashid Burney, Don Davis and Cory Storch, who called the Park Hotel "beyond outmoded."
Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs, meanwhile, said she's had discussion about the issue with the assemblyman, and "encourages the conversation." Echoing his statement that the city has enough group homes and service agencies, Robinson-Briggs said other municipalities should "take on their own responsibilities," adding, "we'll all deal with our own quality of life issues as well."
One longtime resident, however, disagreed.
Speaking during the public comment period, Bernice Paglia reminded the council that a town's responsibility shouldn't be just to taxpayers. Citing the high number of Plainfield youths in juvenile detention centers outside the city, she said, "Maybe there should be [a] big juvenile detention facility in Plainfield." Paglia, who also writes a daily blog about the city, added, "When we talk about our town, let's have an open heart on who our own really are."
Alexi Friedman may be reached at (908) 302-1505 or afriedman@starledger.com
This story did NOT appear in the online edition of the Star-Ledger and was transcribed for this archive by Dan Damon.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
Published in the Star-Ledger, Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Lawmaker urges closing of group home
He opposes the renewal of Plainfield facility's license
BY ALEXI FRIEDMAN
STAR-LEDGER STAFF
A Plainfield group home that for decades has served nearly 200 special-needs adults, including the mentally disabled, faces an uncertain future now that the city's powerful assemblyman wants it closed and residents relocated.
The facility, the Park Hotel Board Home, is the largest of its kind in Union County and lies in the city's downtown business district, making it a target as Plainfield continue its push for retail and residential development.
In asking the city council to consider opposing a license renewal for the Park Hotel -- the license expires Aug. 31 -- Assemblyman Jerry Green said the institution on West Seventh Street and Arlington Avenue is antiquated and cannot adequately care for its residents.
Green also wants the council to seek a moratorium from the state on future group homes in Plainfield because most are nonprofit organizations exempted from paying property taxes.
The Park Hotel, a for-profit, 182-bed facility housed in a six-story building, is also tax exempt [note by DD: this is an error, the property IS ON THE TAX ROLLS].
Any action by the council would serve only as a recommendation once time comes for the state to renew or revoke the Park Hotel's license.
Such a license would only be revoked if the facility has significant violations or had opened without a license, neither of which is the case with the Park Hotel, according to Sean Darcy, a spokesman for the state Department of Community Affairs.
Thee assemblyman made his case to the council Monday night, saying Plainfield has welcomed its share of social service agencies over the past 30 years and that it's time for other municipalities to do their part.
The point, Green said, is not to throw residents on the street.
"I want to make it very clear, we're concerned about people in that facility first," said the assemblyman, who is chairman of the Legislature's housing and local government committee. The Park Hotel is regulated by the Department of Community Affairs and its residents are overseen by the Department of Human Services.
Green said he wants to work with the state to find other locations in the county and wants the city to help him in that effort, sending the message "that we're prepared to do whatever we can to make sure these human beings are treated fairly. Currently, they are not."
Calls to Park Hotel officials for comment yesterday were not returned.
In a letter to city council President Rayland Van Blake, the assemblyman cited a trend in mental health services toward smaller institutions with fewer than 20 beds.
"The state would not approve a facility such as the Park Hotel today, given changes in policy," he wrote.
Green also posed his request as a public safety issue, saying Park Hotel residents "roam the streets of Plainfield," adding that merchants in nearby stores have complained about their behavior.
While individual merchants may feel that way, Lisa Cohen, who heads up the Plainfield Special Improvement District, said she has not heard such criticisms from members. Cohen is also owner of Suburban Jewelers on East Front Street.
In fact, some Park Hotel residents occasionally stop by her store to make small purchases or to say hello, she said.
Still, Green's plan was warmly received by several council members, including Rashid Burney, Don Davis and Cory Storch, who called the Park Hotel "beyond outmoded."
Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs, meanwhile, said she's had discussion about the issue with the assemblyman, and "encourages the conversation." Echoing his statement that the city has enough group homes and service agencies, Robinson-Briggs said other municipalities should "take on their own responsibilities," adding, "we'll all deal with our own quality of life issues as well."
One longtime resident, however, disagreed.
Speaking during the public comment period, Bernice Paglia reminded the council that a town's responsibility shouldn't be just to taxpayers. Citing the high number of Plainfield youths in juvenile detention centers outside the city, she said, "Maybe there should be [a] big juvenile detention facility in Plainfield." Paglia, who also writes a daily blog about the city, added, "When we talk about our town, let's have an open heart on who our own really are."
Alexi Friedman may be reached at (908) 302-1505 or afriedman@starledger.com
This story did NOT appear in the online edition of the Star-Ledger and was transcribed for this archive by Dan Damon.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Park Hotel - Courier - Green backs closing group home
Published in the Courier News, Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Assemblyman Green backs closing city group home
Officials describe home for mentally ill as unsafe, a nuisance
By CELANIE POLANICK
Staff Writer
PLAINFIELD -- On Tuesday afternoon, outside the Park Hotel Boarding Home on West Seventh Street, a middle-aged woman wearing plastic butterfly barettes and pink fingernail polish lifted the top of a trash can and looked inside.
She put it back, turned around and walked back into the facility, which is a privately-run, for-profit home for the mentally disabled. The woman came back out and repeated the process a few minutes later.
Local officials are discussing whether to lobby the state Department of Community Affairs not to renew the facility's license in August.
District 22 Assemblyman Jerry Green, D-Plainfield, visited a City Council meeting Monday night to share his opinion: the aging 182-bed facility is an inadequate place to house its clientele and a financial burden to the city.
Within the next two weeks, Green hopes to meet with the state Department of Health and Human Services, the state Department of Community Affairs and Union County officials to try to find placements for the residents in smaller group homes.
Management from the home did not return six phone calls over a two-day period and did not come forward when a reporter visited the property.
The facility has no open violations with the Department of Community Affairs, department spokesman Chris Donnelly said.
"The department would revoke a license and close a facility only if there were significant violations of the residential health-care facility regulations," Donnelly said.
Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs said she supports Green's request, but wants the city government to be sensitive to the needs of the facility's residents, as well.
"First and foremost, the City of Plainfield is absolutely sensitive to the needs of the residents of the Park Hotel, and we are also mindful of our need to be fiscally prudent," Robinson-Briggs said. "This is a situation where we are asking other municipalities to join us by being responsible for their quality of life situations as it relates to the residents' care and required services. What the city would really like is if the individuals who live in other municipalities but are staying in Plainfield -- we need those municipalities to step up and make provisions for their residents."
Councilman Don Davis said he was "100 percent" behind Green.
"We have to start doing more for people that are inside the city, instead of outside," Davis said. "It's time for other communities to start taking care of their needs."
Davis said he had serious qualms with putting that many mentally disabled residents in one location, calling for "smaller facilities to get them the care they truly need."
"Even if you were healthy, I don't think it's right to have that many people jammed up on top of one another," Davis. "I believe (Assemblyman Green) is really trying to help those in need."
Some Park Hotel residents wander around the neighborhood all day disrupting local businesses, and they may require extra police and emergency services that cost the city money, Green said Monday.
Police respond on a regular basis to medical and mental health calls, police Sgt. Daniel Passarelli said. Park Hotel residents often panhandle but rarely cause larger trouble, he said.
"We basically just try to move them on their way," Passarelli said.
Councilman Cory Storch is the executive director of Bridgeway Rehabilitation Services, a company that works with Park Hotel residents.
"The Park Hotel is a really outmoded facility," Storch said. "It isn't a good model for community integration. That's definitely an approach that we all should be using -- people would be living independently, or if they needed more support, they would be living in facilities, but much smaller ones."
John Dempsey Jr., a resident, said the facility is clean, with good food.
"They clean my room every day, they clean the hallway," he said.
Dempsey has lived in the home for a year and a few months, he said. If he couldn't live there, he would go to live with his mother in Summit -- but he isn't sure what the rest of the residents would do, he said.
Cathy Ritchie, a psychiatric nurse for Holy Redeemer Health Care, works with some of the residents. They may get hurt while interacting with traffic, but for the most part they're not a danger to others, she said.
"They're really harmless," she said. "They might not look pretty, but when they're taking their medication, they're pretty harmless. A lot of these people have no place else to go."
The amount of supervision the residents get is dictated by the facility's license, Ritchie said.
Local businesspeople have mixed reactions to the issue.
Lorraine George, an employee at the Washland laundromat across the street, said she just tells Park Hotel residents to stay outside.
Adrienne Cole, a Christian products wholesaler who sells through the Plainfield Flower Shop, said she disagrees with the efforts to shut down the home.
"I just don't see why they would want to take something from a group of people that evidently has nowhere else to go," she said, pointing across the street to a man squatting in the facility's parking lot. "Instead of trying to get rid of them, they should be doing some type of fundraising efforts to help maintain it. They're so concerned about the economics? Get some jobs going."
"If they could control their residents, it'd be a much better place," said Norman Rodgers, who runs Rodgers Christian Day Academy across the street from the facility and keeps his brightly-painted front door locked. Rodgers used to work at Eden House in East Orange, and believes in a balanced approach, he said.
"It's definitely needed, but let's just try to control it," Rodgers said. "Increase the staff -- let's put some money into that. What else are you gonna do with the building? Let someone make $100,000 a month off it? That's not fair."
People shouldn't forget the needs of the residents themselves, he said:
"If something like that happened to you or I, we would want and need someplace to stay."
Staff writer Martin C. Bricketto contributed to this report.
StoryChat/Comments
It is time for a new Plainfield to surface. There's no beauty to Plainfield and beautification is what the city needs. Find a new location for the group home. It's bad for business. I've lived in Plainfield close to 40 years and it has gone down, while towns like Westfield have grown!! NO REAL businesses wants to return to Plainfield. I would love to sit in Starbucks in Plainfield instead of Westfield. Downtown Plainfield has nothing to offer when it comes to shopping. Harlem, New York, has a Starbucks. Plainfield is becoming a JOKE!! I have to agree with Jerry Green.
Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 10:17 am
I agree the place should be closed down.It's almost in the heart of town.We should find places for our own "trouble souls " and let the other towns find places for theirs.Why should other towns dump their problems in our town?If each town took care of their sick they could be placed in smaller places .Plainfield is a dropping place for what ever other cities don't want.I'm sure most of these residents are not from Plainfield.Let each city take care of their own.Go Jerry Green I'm behind you in this.
Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 9:42 am
Green backs! Is this an Imus joke? Jeez.
Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 9:31 am
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
Assemblyman Green backs closing city group home
Officials describe home for mentally ill as unsafe, a nuisance
By CELANIE POLANICK
Staff Writer
PLAINFIELD -- On Tuesday afternoon, outside the Park Hotel Boarding Home on West Seventh Street, a middle-aged woman wearing plastic butterfly barettes and pink fingernail polish lifted the top of a trash can and looked inside.
She put it back, turned around and walked back into the facility, which is a privately-run, for-profit home for the mentally disabled. The woman came back out and repeated the process a few minutes later.
Local officials are discussing whether to lobby the state Department of Community Affairs not to renew the facility's license in August.
District 22 Assemblyman Jerry Green, D-Plainfield, visited a City Council meeting Monday night to share his opinion: the aging 182-bed facility is an inadequate place to house its clientele and a financial burden to the city.
Within the next two weeks, Green hopes to meet with the state Department of Health and Human Services, the state Department of Community Affairs and Union County officials to try to find placements for the residents in smaller group homes.
Management from the home did not return six phone calls over a two-day period and did not come forward when a reporter visited the property.
The facility has no open violations with the Department of Community Affairs, department spokesman Chris Donnelly said.
"The department would revoke a license and close a facility only if there were significant violations of the residential health-care facility regulations," Donnelly said.
Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs said she supports Green's request, but wants the city government to be sensitive to the needs of the facility's residents, as well.
"First and foremost, the City of Plainfield is absolutely sensitive to the needs of the residents of the Park Hotel, and we are also mindful of our need to be fiscally prudent," Robinson-Briggs said. "This is a situation where we are asking other municipalities to join us by being responsible for their quality of life situations as it relates to the residents' care and required services. What the city would really like is if the individuals who live in other municipalities but are staying in Plainfield -- we need those municipalities to step up and make provisions for their residents."
Councilman Don Davis said he was "100 percent" behind Green.
"We have to start doing more for people that are inside the city, instead of outside," Davis said. "It's time for other communities to start taking care of their needs."
Davis said he had serious qualms with putting that many mentally disabled residents in one location, calling for "smaller facilities to get them the care they truly need."
"Even if you were healthy, I don't think it's right to have that many people jammed up on top of one another," Davis. "I believe (Assemblyman Green) is really trying to help those in need."
Some Park Hotel residents wander around the neighborhood all day disrupting local businesses, and they may require extra police and emergency services that cost the city money, Green said Monday.
Police respond on a regular basis to medical and mental health calls, police Sgt. Daniel Passarelli said. Park Hotel residents often panhandle but rarely cause larger trouble, he said.
"We basically just try to move them on their way," Passarelli said.
Councilman Cory Storch is the executive director of Bridgeway Rehabilitation Services, a company that works with Park Hotel residents.
"The Park Hotel is a really outmoded facility," Storch said. "It isn't a good model for community integration. That's definitely an approach that we all should be using -- people would be living independently, or if they needed more support, they would be living in facilities, but much smaller ones."
John Dempsey Jr., a resident, said the facility is clean, with good food.
"They clean my room every day, they clean the hallway," he said.
Dempsey has lived in the home for a year and a few months, he said. If he couldn't live there, he would go to live with his mother in Summit -- but he isn't sure what the rest of the residents would do, he said.
Cathy Ritchie, a psychiatric nurse for Holy Redeemer Health Care, works with some of the residents. They may get hurt while interacting with traffic, but for the most part they're not a danger to others, she said.
"They're really harmless," she said. "They might not look pretty, but when they're taking their medication, they're pretty harmless. A lot of these people have no place else to go."
The amount of supervision the residents get is dictated by the facility's license, Ritchie said.
Local businesspeople have mixed reactions to the issue.
Lorraine George, an employee at the Washland laundromat across the street, said she just tells Park Hotel residents to stay outside.
Adrienne Cole, a Christian products wholesaler who sells through the Plainfield Flower Shop, said she disagrees with the efforts to shut down the home.
"I just don't see why they would want to take something from a group of people that evidently has nowhere else to go," she said, pointing across the street to a man squatting in the facility's parking lot. "Instead of trying to get rid of them, they should be doing some type of fundraising efforts to help maintain it. They're so concerned about the economics? Get some jobs going."
"If they could control their residents, it'd be a much better place," said Norman Rodgers, who runs Rodgers Christian Day Academy across the street from the facility and keeps his brightly-painted front door locked. Rodgers used to work at Eden House in East Orange, and believes in a balanced approach, he said.
"It's definitely needed, but let's just try to control it," Rodgers said. "Increase the staff -- let's put some money into that. What else are you gonna do with the building? Let someone make $100,000 a month off it? That's not fair."
People shouldn't forget the needs of the residents themselves, he said:
"If something like that happened to you or I, we would want and need someplace to stay."
Staff writer Martin C. Bricketto contributed to this report.
StoryChat/Comments
It is time for a new Plainfield to surface. There's no beauty to Plainfield and beautification is what the city needs. Find a new location for the group home. It's bad for business. I've lived in Plainfield close to 40 years and it has gone down, while towns like Westfield have grown!! NO REAL businesses wants to return to Plainfield. I would love to sit in Starbucks in Plainfield instead of Westfield. Downtown Plainfield has nothing to offer when it comes to shopping. Harlem, New York, has a Starbucks. Plainfield is becoming a JOKE!! I have to agree with Jerry Green.
Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 10:17 am
I agree the place should be closed down.It's almost in the heart of town.We should find places for our own "trouble souls " and let the other towns find places for theirs.Why should other towns dump their problems in our town?If each town took care of their sick they could be placed in smaller places .Plainfield is a dropping place for what ever other cities don't want.I'm sure most of these residents are not from Plainfield.Let each city take care of their own.Go Jerry Green I'm behind you in this.
Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 9:42 am
Green backs! Is this an Imus joke? Jeez.
Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 9:31 am
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Park Hotel - Courier - Green lobbies to close facility
Published in the Courier News, Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Plainfield official lobbying to close boarding facility
Assemblyman cites development, funding issues in council meeting talks
By CELANIE POLANICK
Staff Writer
PLAINFIELD -- On West Seventh Street, when the mentally disabled residents of the Park Hotel Boarding Home have nowhere else to go, they walk down the street and wander in and out of stores all day, Assemblyman Jerry Green said.
Green, D-Plainfield, visited the City Council meeting Monday night to seek support for his efforts to lobby the state Department of Community Affairs not to renew the Park Hotel's operating license. As federal and state funding sources for social services dry up, Plainfield's lower real estate prices are part of what's making the city a magnet for people who need extra help and the agencies who serve them -- including those who aren't from Plainfield, Green said Monday afternoon.
This trend has financial consequences for the city, from reducing tax revenues to dampening the success of local businesses, he said.
"We're trying to move the city in a new direction," Green said. "We're trying to be very positive toward the redevelopment of the downtown area."
The 182-bed residential facility is run by a for-profit company, Plainfield Hotel LLC; representatives of the company did not return a phone call Monday for comment. The facility does not have any unresolved violations with the DCA, DCA spokesman Chris Donnelly said.
The facility is in the heart of Plainfield's downtown, across the street from a redevelopment zone. It hasn't been upgraded in 30 years, and the residents have no place to spend time other than their rooms or the streets of the city, Green said.
"These people have no recreational grounds," Green said. "The businesses in the community complain about the fact of them not having a social area or an area to congregate. They often spend their time in the different stores, just wandering ... They have no other place to go. ... This is no direct attack on anyone. I'm obligated as an elected official to make sure that these people are given what I consider quality housing."
Green also wants to push for restrictions on allowing additional facilities such as the Park Hotel Boarding Home to come to Plainfield, because they create additional need for emergency services and police intervention. Last year, Muhlenberg Hospital lost $9 million in costs of treatment for people who couldn't pay for it, Green said.
"Not only are we talking about a quality of life issue, we're talking about the city no longer being able to subsidize the services that go with a facility of this nature," he said.
Generally, the council seems to share Green's concerns, but the issue is still in the discussion phase, Councilman Rashid Burney said before the meeting.
Although the Park Hotel is a for-profit business, numerous nonprofit organizations similar to it don't pay property taxes, thereby reducing the city's number of taxable properties, Burney said.
However, there isn't much the city can do legally to force the facility to close or move, or to stop new ones from moving in; the state calls them "inherently beneficial uses," and the city has little regulatory power over them, Burney said.
As the cost of operating these homes rises, the city may be asked to foot the bill -- and that's too much to ask, Burney said. Last year in August, a halfway house run by the city with funds from Middlesex and Union counties was short $56,000 -- costs had gone up, but the funding hadn't, Burney said. When the figure ended up on the city's budget, the council had to say no to it, he said.
"I certainly want to help the disadvantaged members of society," Burney said. "I just feel that at this point, we've got more than our share. Per capita, we've got more than any of the other municipalities around us. We certainly want to take care of our own -- we just don't have the resources right now to take care of everybody else's."
Celanie Polanick can be reached at (908) 707-3137 or cpolanick@c-n.com
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
Plainfield official lobbying to close boarding facility
Assemblyman cites development, funding issues in council meeting talks
By CELANIE POLANICK
Staff Writer
PLAINFIELD -- On West Seventh Street, when the mentally disabled residents of the Park Hotel Boarding Home have nowhere else to go, they walk down the street and wander in and out of stores all day, Assemblyman Jerry Green said.
Green, D-Plainfield, visited the City Council meeting Monday night to seek support for his efforts to lobby the state Department of Community Affairs not to renew the Park Hotel's operating license. As federal and state funding sources for social services dry up, Plainfield's lower real estate prices are part of what's making the city a magnet for people who need extra help and the agencies who serve them -- including those who aren't from Plainfield, Green said Monday afternoon.
This trend has financial consequences for the city, from reducing tax revenues to dampening the success of local businesses, he said.
"We're trying to move the city in a new direction," Green said. "We're trying to be very positive toward the redevelopment of the downtown area."
The 182-bed residential facility is run by a for-profit company, Plainfield Hotel LLC; representatives of the company did not return a phone call Monday for comment. The facility does not have any unresolved violations with the DCA, DCA spokesman Chris Donnelly said.
The facility is in the heart of Plainfield's downtown, across the street from a redevelopment zone. It hasn't been upgraded in 30 years, and the residents have no place to spend time other than their rooms or the streets of the city, Green said.
"These people have no recreational grounds," Green said. "The businesses in the community complain about the fact of them not having a social area or an area to congregate. They often spend their time in the different stores, just wandering ... They have no other place to go. ... This is no direct attack on anyone. I'm obligated as an elected official to make sure that these people are given what I consider quality housing."
Green also wants to push for restrictions on allowing additional facilities such as the Park Hotel Boarding Home to come to Plainfield, because they create additional need for emergency services and police intervention. Last year, Muhlenberg Hospital lost $9 million in costs of treatment for people who couldn't pay for it, Green said.
"Not only are we talking about a quality of life issue, we're talking about the city no longer being able to subsidize the services that go with a facility of this nature," he said.
Generally, the council seems to share Green's concerns, but the issue is still in the discussion phase, Councilman Rashid Burney said before the meeting.
Although the Park Hotel is a for-profit business, numerous nonprofit organizations similar to it don't pay property taxes, thereby reducing the city's number of taxable properties, Burney said.
However, there isn't much the city can do legally to force the facility to close or move, or to stop new ones from moving in; the state calls them "inherently beneficial uses," and the city has little regulatory power over them, Burney said.
As the cost of operating these homes rises, the city may be asked to foot the bill -- and that's too much to ask, Burney said. Last year in August, a halfway house run by the city with funds from Middlesex and Union counties was short $56,000 -- costs had gone up, but the funding hadn't, Burney said. When the figure ended up on the city's budget, the council had to say no to it, he said.
"I certainly want to help the disadvantaged members of society," Burney said. "I just feel that at this point, we've got more than our share. Per capita, we've got more than any of the other municipalities around us. We certainly want to take care of our own -- we just don't have the resources right now to take care of everybody else's."
Celanie Polanick can be reached at (908) 707-3137 or cpolanick@c-n.com
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)