A 58-year-old male motorcyclist has died following a fatal road accident at the entrance to the site of a since-abandoned shelter targeted for asylum seekers at the entrance to Orchard Beach parking lot.

 

On Friday, Oct. 14, at around 6.51 p.m., police from the 45th Precinct responded to a 911 call regarding the collision which occurred on Park Drive at the entrance/exit to Orchard Beach parking lot.

 

A police spokesperson said, “Upon arrival, officers observed a 58-year-old male, unconscious and unresponsive, with trauma about the head and body.” The spokesperson added, “EMS responded to the location and transported the aided male to NYC Health & Hospitals/Jacobi, where he was pronounced deceased.”

 

Further investigation by the NYPD Highway District Collision Investigation Squad determined that the man was driving a 2012 Harley Davidson Sportster motorcycle, traveling southbound on Park Drive, exiting the Orchard Beach Parking lot in the right lane, when he struck a metal barrier that was separating the left and right southbound lanes.

 

Upon impact with the barrier, the vehicle continued southbound with the barrier still attached to the motorcycle, causing the motorcyclist to lose control, fall from the motorcycle and land on the pavement. The investigation remains ongoing.

 

The identity of the deceased is pending proper family notification.

 

In late September, it was announced that Orchard Beach was to be a proposed but since-abandoned site for a shelter to house asylum seekers, as reported. Construction of the site had begun but as reported, was stopped a short time later when Mayor Eric Adams announced in early October, amid pressure from various sides, that the site would be moved to Randall’s Island instead.

 

When Norwood News was on site at Orchard Beach on Oct. 1 to cover a protest, there were no visible signs explaining the site project and most of the trucks appeared to be rentals. Several trucks belonged to Granny’s Emergency Mobile Equipment. Others displayed signs marked, “Scarlet Rentals.” A metal barrier was seen on one side of the entrance to the parking lot.

 

The decision to move the site to Randall’s has also raised concerns by some, including Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, State Sen. Gustavo Rivera (S.D. 33) and the group, Housing Justice for All, as also reported, for many of the same reasons as those voiced in relation to the proposed Orchard Beach shelter site.

 

Cea Weaver, campaign coordinator of Housing Justice for All, said, in part, of the Randall’s Island shelter proposal, “Mayor Adams’ half-baked plan to house asylum seekers in tents on a flood-prone island is a slap in the face to the ideals that New Yorkers hold dear. Amid a longstanding housing crisis, hurricane season in full swing, and winter around the corner, the Mayor’s response has ranged from abject cruelty to real estate giveaways like 421-a.”

 

He added, “His plan robs those seeking shelter of their basic human rights and flies in the face of decades of public policy in New York City. There are clear solutions to the housing crisis that our City faces, solutions which Mayor Adams has continually ignored. Instead of throwing his weight behind policies like the Housing Access Voucher Program that would provide New Yorkers with money to pay the rent or Good Cause eviction protections that could let New Yorkers stay in their homes, Mayor Adams is backing handouts to big developers like 421-a that have failed time and again to provide adequate housing for New Yorkers.”

 

Weaver said there were common sense solutions proposed to house asylum seekers, such as using vacant space in shuttered hotels or long term solutions like HAVP. “It’s time for Mayor Adams to get behind these solutions – or risk tarnishing New York’s reputation for the long haul,” he concluded.

On Oct. 7, the mayor declared an asylum seeker state of emergency in light of the growing number of asylum seekers arriving in the City and called for urgent aid from federal and State governments to help address the situation.

 

On Oct. 5, the city council speaker, deputy speaker, Diana Ayala, and the chair and members of the council’s immigration committee expressed major concerns about the City’s plan to relocate the shelter to Randall’s Island, citing the island’s environmental challenges, with flood risks in the middle of hurricane season and the exposure to increasingly colder weather exacerbated by being on the water surrounded by the East River.

 

They urged the Adams’ administration to consider alternative indoor locations “to more humanely” provide emergency relief and intake services to people seeking asylum. Council members highlighted that there are approximately 10 large-scale hotels in Manhattan, which they said are currently closed and might offer indoor space to host intake and relief services for newly arriving asylum seekers. Staffing for the hotel-based relief centers, they said, could also offer opportunities for hotel workers, who lost their jobs in the closures, to return to work.

 

In addition, council leaders also highlighted what they said was the urgent need for the City to act to implement solutions to reduce the  lengthy stays in its homeless shelters that have historically strained the system. “Permanent affordable housing with supportive services must be prioritized as the City faces a growing unhoused population,” they said.

 

These solutions include reviewing closed hotels for conversion to supportive housing that can provide permanent affordable housing with supportive services for people to transition out of the City’s shelter system. In addition to the 10 large hotels, with room-counts ranging from 1,025 to 478, council members said there are over 70 additional closed hotels – like the Gramercy Park Hotel – that could be assessed for conversion to supportive housing.

 

They said the council has cumulatively identified that there are over 15,000 such rooms across the city. “The Times Square – a former hotel building acquired in 1991, which currently operates as a supportive housing site of over 650 units, can serve as a practical model,” they said. “The site provides onsite supportive services for low-income and formerly homeless adults, people with mental health challenges, and New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS. The expansion of supportive housing could help reduce homelessness and ensure New Yorkers in need of mental health and social services receive assistance to attain stability, addressing two different crises facing the city.”

 

The Council also encouraged the City to eliminate bureaucratic obstacles and pursue policy changes to facilitate the faster transition of people out of homeless shelters to reduce stress on the system that is necessitating emergency expansion of temporary shelters. These changes include improved access to CityFHEPS and supportive housing placements, and adequate staffing of key agency operations by:

 

• eliminating the rule that requires people to remain in the shelter system for 90 days before becoming eligible for the CityFHEPS rental voucher program;
• reducing the number of homeless families with children who are needlessly shuffled between conditional shelter placements by removing administrative barriers and advocating for the State to reevaluate verification requirements (families can be repeatedly required to return to the PATH Intake Center to reapply and be placed, promoting instability and unnecessarily extending the timeframe to access supports transitioning out of the shelter system);
• resolving bureaucratic errors and inefficiencies in the application process for CityFHEPS and supportive housing that block people from accessing the opportunities to transition from the shelter system;
• prioritizing hiring of Department of Social Services (DSS) staff who help process CityFHEPS applications and supportive housing placements, to both reduce backlogs that currently occur and prepare for an increase in applications;
• tackling source-of-income discrimination that blocks people with rental vouchers from securing apartments by ensuring adequate staffing and operational capacity of the Source of Income Unit at the Commission on Human Rights.

 

“Our city is grappling with a homelessness crisis exacerbated by an international emergency that we did not create, but demands effective and compassionate responses,” the speaker said in part.

 

Meanwhile, District 14 City Council Member Pierina Sanchez said, “As we continue to face this humanitarian emergency, we must do what New York has always done and open our arms as a City of care and compassion. As a right to shelter locality, we have a duty to house every individual who needs us and as a sanctuary city, we must care for those who enter the U.S. in search of a better life. Following Friday’s hearing and severe flooding this weekend, I shared grave concerns with the Humanitarian Emergency Relief Center proposed at Orchard Beach, regarding transit and amenity access, as well as protection from the elements.”

 

Sanchez added, “Some but not all these important concerns are mitigated with the announcement of Randall’s Island. When I held an executive budget hearing as Chair of Housing and Buildings, my colleagues and I impressed upon the administration the expand our investment to build more affordable and supportive housing. This humanitarian crisis again underscores why it is crucial to unburden our shelter system by creating more permanent affordable housing faster. As we approach winter, we need indoor options to provide migrants protection from the elements. I join my colleagues in calling for the administration to delve into utilizing vacant buildings in the City.”

 

Coincidentally, Randall’s Island was the site of the opening ceremony on Saturday, Oct. 15, of one of Special Olympics New York’s signature events. The Inclusion Cup brought hundreds of athletes together in a celebration of inclusion as well as competition in bocce, softball, soccer and developmental sports. Soccer and bocce include unified teams made up of players with and without intellectual disabilities.

 

NYPD handles all criminal aspects of collision investigations, while NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) reviews the street design at the locations of such crashes.

 

Pending the outcome of the collision investigation, Norwood News has contacted City officials to ask if the barrier involved in this incident was perhaps part of the remains of the since abandoned shelter site or if it was always in place at the location. We will update this story with any feedback we receive.

 

*David Greene contributed to this story.