Day: September 29, 2021

The city’s Department of Homeless Services (DHS) said it will stop contracting with Aguila to run the men’s shelter inside the Park View Hotel on West 110th St., across the street from Central Park, by the end of the year as it seeks to weed out inadequate providers.

New York City is kicking shelter provider Aguila, Inc. out of a Harlem hotel for homeless men and cutting ties with the troubled nonprofit, City Limits has learned.

The city’s Department of Homeless Services (DHS) said it will stop contracting with Aguila to run the men’s shelter inside the Park View Hotel on West 110th Street, across the street from Central Park, by the end of the year as it seeks to weed out inadequate providers. The Park View is the last site run by Aguila, once one of the city’s largest homeless shelter operators with dozens of facilities in Manhattan and the Bronx.

A DHS spokesperson said the building, which is owned by the notorious Podolsky family, may still function as a shelter run by a different nonprofit. The city does not appear to have issued a request for proposals for a new shelter operator at the site.

The decision comes amid an ongoing audit of the city’s sprawling shelter system, commissioned by the mayor in February, following a New York Times investigation into allegations of rape and bribery against the head of another major shelter operator, Bronx Parent Housing Network.

Aguila CEO Ray Sanchez said he did not know about the city’s decision until he was contacted by City Limits, but said his company would “[cease] to exist without New York City contracts.”

Sanchez, the former counsel to Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., took over Aguila in 2020 after the previous agency head was fired while the state attorney general conducted an investigation into allegations of financial crimes and bribery. He sought to reform the organization, he said.

He said Aguila worked with the city to establish a new type of pandemic-related facility at the Park View: a “pre-assessment” shelter housing men who may have been exposed to COVID-19 before they are assigned to shelters for longer stays elsewhere in the city. The former single-room occupancy hotel is currently known as the Jardin Central Pre-Assessment Shelter and earned “significant praise” from city officials, Sanchez said.

He said he met in October 2020 with senior city officials who informed him “that almost all of Aguila’s contracts would be canceled or reassigned to other providers except for the ‘Parkview  Inn/Jardin Central Pre-Assessment.’”

“Nevertheless, the city expressed a willingness to work with Aguila at new sites,” he added in a statement. “To that end, I took several important steps to rehabilitate Aguila, such as implementing new financial controls and recruiting three upstanding attorneys to Aguila’s Board.”

Prior to the pandemic, the 110th Street building served as a shelter for adult families. It was the frequent subject of tabloid reporting.

One resident who spoke with City Limits outside the building Monday said men sleep in single rooms and share bathrooms in the 205-unit property overlooking Central Park. He said he arrived Friday and was informed that he would be moved to another shelter as early as Wednesday, as is common at the transitional site.

Three staff members who spoke with City Limits while entering or exiting the building Monday said they had not heard of any upcoming changes at the shelter.

Less than a decade ago, Aguila ran more than 40 shelters for single adults and families with children. The troubled but politically connected nonprofit managed to win contracts totaling more than $250 million since 2012, despite scathing accounts of financial mismanagement and unsafe conditions uncovered by the city comptroller’s office.

“In light of the repeated and systematic failures, DHS should discontinue its use of Aguila,” then-Comptroller John Liu wrote to Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2013.

At the time, Aguila was led by former DHS Commissioner Robert Hess and frequently provided services in shelters, like the Apollo Hotel and the Aladdin Hotel, owned by the Podolskys and their associate Alan Lapes. Those landlords have been accused of failing to maintain their buildings and driving tenants out in order to land lucrative city shelter contracts.

After Liu’s report, the nonprofit continued to score major contracts despite its reputation for shoddy services and hazardous conditions.

A 2019 audit by state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s office looked at five of the 24 shelters Aguila ran at the time. The inspectors rated conditions “poor” at two of the sites and “very poor” at three, where they found cockroaches and rodent feces inside an oven, a mangled floor covered in plywood, broken appliances and a missing fire extinguisher. New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer’s Office inspected 10 Aguila shelter units during a 2020 infant safety audit report. They documented “Safety and Health Concerns Due to Unsafe Sleep and Inadequate Unit Conditions” at all 10.

Aguila received $56.1 million from the city in the 2014 fiscal year, the year the Bloomberg Administration gave way to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s. Aguila continued contracting with the city under de Blasio, including agreements totaling $47 million in the 2018 fiscal year and $36.4 million in the 2019 fiscal year, the comptroller’s contract database checkbook.nyc shows. Aguila received $16.5 million last year and has so far taken in $6.9 million during the current fiscal year, which began July 1.

In addition to accusations of substandard services, Aguila has in recent years been embroiled in a legal dispute with another provider and a criminal probe targeting its former top executive. Ex-CEO Jenny Rivera was fired last year after Attorney General Letitia James’ office investigated her for bribery, money laundering and falsifying business records. James’ office did not immediately respond to a query about the status of that probe.

Before her ouster, Rivera complained in an open letter to de Blasio about the city’s efforts to “systematically dismantle Aguila” by rejecting their contract bids and citing them for poor conditions. Rivera was replaced by Sanchez, who ran unsuccessfully for City Council in Manhattan’s District 7 earlier this year.

DHS’ systemwide audit of its shelters could lead to even more shake ups. The agency’s First Deputy Commissioner Molly Park described their strategy for ending contracts with problematic providers during an April 30 City Council hearing about the audit.

“These ongoing transformation efforts include phasing out certain providers who do not meet our high standards of service and care, and our comprehensive review of all providers and contracts continues,” Park said.

She noted that the city had ended its relationships with four shelter operators that oversaw egregious conditions, particularly inside cluster site shelters. They include the organizations We Always Care, Housing Bridge, Bushwick Economic Development Corporation and Children’s Community Services.

“We are four years into addressing a problem that built up over 40 years, overhauling the way we do business top to bottom, including removing noncompliant providers and building a bench of qualified and experienced new providers, while also meeting our legal and moral obligation to shelter all those who need it every single night,” Park added.

Advocates say they hope the audit will foster a safer shelter system and more moves to permanent housing. There were 45,616 people, including just 8,495 families with children, staying in DHS shelters on Sept. 27, according to the city’s most recent census.

“The right to shelter is a vitally important part of the city’s safety net, and we support oversight efforts to ensure that homeless New Yorkers are provided with safe, accessible, and clean shelters with services that meet their needs,” said Coalition for the Homeless Senior Policy Analyst Jacquelyn Simone.

“The city must also redouble efforts to prevent homelessness before it begins and to move people out of shelters and into permanent affordable housing as quickly as possible, which will allow for a smaller, more person-centered shelter system,” she added.

The post NYC Cutting Ties with Troubled Homeless Services Provider Aguila, Inc. appeared first on City Limits.

Before the 2021 season began, Bailey Ober figured he might get a call-up later in the year, perhaps to help the Twins make a September push for the playoffs.

There was no push for the playoffs, of course, but there was a rookie season beyond Ober’s expectations, one that reached its conclusion on Tuesday when the Twins placed the 26-year-old on the injured list with a right hip strain.

“I didn’t think I was going to be up for this large of a body (of work) up here,” Ober said. “It’s definitely been unreal to be able to stay up here as long as I have been and have some of the success that I had.”

In 20 starts at the major league level this year, Ober posted a 4.19 earned-run average, taking hold of a rotation spot for good in early June when the Twins finally shifted Matt Shoemaker to the bullpen. Beyond his success on the field, he didn’t have arm issues throughout the entirety of the season, a welcomed development for Ober, who said he hadn’t had a pain-free season since 2016.

The club has been carefully monitoring Ober’s workload this year as a result — the righty underwent Tommy John surgery while in college and had elbow issues in both 2018 and 2019 before the minor league season was wiped out in 2020.

“It’s definitely been neat to see the stuff that I’ve been putting in off the field is paying off a little bit ,and hopefully I can continue that going into next year,” Ober said.

Prior to this year, he had never thrown more than 80 innings in any season as a professional. He ends 2021 at 108 1/3.

While coming out of games early was not always ideal for the competitor in Ober — his pitch count was often held to around 75 pitches — he understood and respected the decision of the Twins in an attempt to keep him healthy.

And it’s hard to argue with the results.

“A lot of the starting pitchers last year maybe threw about 60 innings, around there,” Ober said. “I had zero, so I had even less. And I somehow made it through this year without being injured, and my arm feels grear. So the regimen that I have been doing and sticking to and all the people that have been helping me, I’m going to continue to do that and continue to learn and try to find new ways to improve my body and stay healthy.”

While Ober’s season is ending one start short of what it would have otherwise, the Twins have been pleased with what they saw from the rookie over the course of the year as he carved out a role for himself in the rotation.

The Twins put Ober on the 40-man roster ahead of this season, and general manager Thad Levine, citing how uncomfortable opposing hitters are in the box against him, said the Twins were always curious “how that would play in the big leagues, how that would play pitching every five days.”

Ober spent this season answering those questions.

“He’s gone out there and really had a tremendous season. In a season that was dying for some silver linings, I think Bailey Ober presents as one of the more prominent silver linings for the season and goes into this offseason in a really good position relative to factoring into our starting rotation for next year,” Levine said.

Students at the University of St. Thomas on Tuesday protested the appearance of stickers linked to a white nationalist group on their St. Paul campus, the university said.

About 200 people turned out for the demonstration outside the Anderson Student Center, the day after the stickers showed up on doors and signs around campus, according to a post on the St. Thomas website.

The stickers, which were first discovered Monday morning, were quickly removed, the university said.

St. Paul police told TommieMedia that about two dozen were affixed to university property, light poles and traffic signs about 3 a.m. Monday.

St. Paul police are investigating the incident with the university’s department of public safety.

The school said in an email Monday that the public safety team removed the stickers.

“St. Thomas will not tolerate acts of racism and intolerance, or anything that stands against our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. We understand these acts are hurtful and are intended to instill fear and division,” the school told students, faculty and staff.

By MATTHEW DALY and LISA MASCARO

WASHINGTON (AP) — As President Joe Biden visited one disaster site after another this summer — from California wildfires to hurricane-induced flooding in Louisiana and New York — he said climate change is “everybody’s crisis” and America must get serious about the “code red” danger posed by global warming.

In many ways, the president is making up for lost time.

Biden and Democrats are pursuing a sweeping $3.5 trillion federal overhaul that includes landmark measures to address climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in what would be the most consequential environmental policies ever enacted, after years of fits and starts.

Sidelined after the former administration withdrew from the landmark Paris climate accord — the 2015 global effort to confront climate change — the U.S. has returned to the arena, with Biden promising world leaders in April that the U.S. would cut carbon pollution in half by 2030.

But following through on Biden’s climate goals depends in large part on passage of the Democratic package, and it will take the White House’s heft to close the deal between centrist and progressive lawmakers, including disputes over its climate provisions.

“That’s where he earns his legacy,” Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., said of Biden.

As Democrats rush to finish a package that touches almost all aspects of American life, the proposals related to climate change are proving to be a sticking point, particularly among key centrist lawmakers.

The president met separately Tuesday with Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona as Democrats chip away at the package’s overall price tag and marshal support. With Republicans in lockstep against the plan, Democrats have few votes to spare as they try to pass it on their own.

“This is Speaker Pelosi’s grand socialist agenda to destroy freedom and embolden our enemies on the backs of American families,″ said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rogers of Washington state, the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce panel.

Yet, for many Democrats, and voters who elected them — the climate provisions are among the most important elements of the sweeping bill. A poll last month by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows 83% of Democrats are very concerned about climate change, compared with just 21% of Republicans.

“This is a ‘code red’ moment, but Democrats are answering the call,’ said Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Florida, chairwoman of a special House committee on climate change.

“Our only hope to avoid catastrophe is to act with urgency — to act now,’ Castor said Tuesday at the Capitol. She called climate change “a clear and present danger to American families who are facing brutal heat waves, devastating floods, failed electric grids and historic wildfires.”

The Democratic plan will make historic investments in clean energy, climate resilience and environmental justice, she said. “We have to get this right.”

Included in the massive legislation is a nationwide clean-electricity program that is intended to eliminate climate-damaging fossil fuel emissions from U.S. power plants by 2035 — catching up to requirements already set in some states.

The proposal would spend billions to install 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations and upgrade the power grid to make it more resilient during hurricanes and other extreme weather events that are increasing and intensifying as a result of climate change.

The measure also would create a New Deal-style Civilian Climate Corps to unleash an army of young people to work in public lands and restoration projects.

“The climate crisis is here, and the cost of inaction is already staggering,” said Energy and Commerce Chair Frank Pallone, D-N.J. The U.S. had 22 climate and weather disasters in 2020 with losses exceeding $1 billion each. Hurricane Ida and other recent disasters are likely to cost tens of billions more.

A slimmer $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill the House is set to consider Thursday addresses some of these priorities, with money for climate resiliency, water system upgrades and other provisions.

But progressive Democrats say a far more comprehensive approach is needed if the U.S is to have a chance to achieve Biden’s goal of cutting the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions in half, leaving both packages at a standstill as talks continue behind the scenes.

“It’s about the livability of this planet,″ said Huffman, a progressive caucus member who said Democrats were “unwilling to just be steamrolled on that.”

But Manchin has said he will not support a number of clean energy and climate provisions. As the powerful chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Manchin has vowed to protect jobs in his coal and gas-producing state and said the price tag for the Democratic bill is too high. Manchin said after the White House meeting he did not give Biden a new topline figure.

Manchin and Sinema are not alone in raising objections. Seven House Democrats from Texas said provisions in the Democratic plan could cost thousands of jobs in the energy industry and increase energy costs for Americans.

“These taxes and fees, as well as the exclusion of natural gas production from clean energy initiatives, constitute punitive practices,″ the Texas lawmakers said in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The letter was signed by Reps. Henry Cuellar, Vicente Gonzalez, Lizzie Fletcher, Sylvia Garcia, Marc Veasey, Filemon Vela and Colin Allred.

Overall, the Biden package aims to provide more than $600 billion to tackle climate change and lower greenhouse gas emissions, funded in large part by taxes on corporations, the wealthy and other fees, keeping to Biden’s pledge not to raise taxes on anyone earning less than $400,000 a year.

One alternative for raising revenues would be to impose a carbon tax. Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said Monday he is developing legislation “that would make polluters pay for the costs of the climate crisis.”

But Wyden and others are mindful of Biden’s pledge not to hit pocketbooks of Americans and the senator said the carbon tax is being developed as part of a menu of options for consideration.

Environmental groups have hailed the overall package, calling it a once-in-a-generation opportunity.

“Investing in new clean energy technologies is one of the best things we can do to create good jobs for regular people right now while reaping long-term benefits and a healthier planet for decades to come,” said Matthew Davis of the League of Conservation Voters.

The clean-energy standard alone could create millions of jobs, while driving the U.S. electricity sector toward zero-carbon emissions, Davis and other advocates said.

With elections around the corner, approval of the bill is crucial, Democrats say.

“If we miss this moment,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D- R.I., referring to Democratic control of Congress and the White House, “it is not clear when we will have a second chance.”

___

Associated Press writer Alan Fram contributed to this story.

NEW YORK — Amazon’s new robot can hear, see and follow you around the the home, but its no Rosey the Robot.

Amazon’s version, called Astro, doesn’t cook or clean like the animated character from “The Jetsons,” but it can check if you left the stove on while you’re out or send an alert if someone enters the house it doesn’t recognize.

It uses cameras, sensors and artificial technology to avoid walls or dogs, and Amazon said Astro — which also happens to be the name of the Jetson’s dog — will only get smarter as time goes on. It does do some housework: Snacks or a can of soda can be placed on its back to be carted to someone across the house.

The $1,000 robot, which will be sent out to customers later this year, was one of a slew of gadgets Amazon unveiled Tuesday as part of its annual event ahead of the holidays.

Astro, however, stole the show. Amazon executive David Limp asked the 17-inch (43-centimeter) tall robot to come on stage during the virtual event, then asked it to beatbox. Its round digital eyes close or widen as it does tasks, giving it a human-like touch.

Amazon said a limited number of the Astro will be sold, but didn’t provide a number.

Besides the robot, Amazon also unveiled a picture frame-like screen that can be hung to a wall and has Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant built in. The company foresees it going in the kitchen, where users can see recipes, check their schedule or watch a show as they cook.

Also Tuesday, the Seattle-based company said its Echo listening devices will be put in Disney hotel rooms next year so that guests can order towels from room service or ask it the fastest way to get to a theme park.