Recently after we broke the story about the registered sex offenders living at Hotel Belleclaire, Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal addressed the issue in an email to her constituents.
In the email, sent on July 29, Rosenthal made the following statement:
“Commissioner Banks has confirmed that all level 3 sex offenders have been moved out of the Belleclaire. And I am demanding that all remaining offenders be moved out as well.”
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As this seemed to be a bit of a departure from her initial stance, “demanding that all remaining offenders be moved out,” we followed up to ask for clarification.
We asked Helen Rosenthal’s office if she still holds her original sentiment, and if so, how specifically she’s fighting to have all remaining offenders moved out.
As a reminder, some of the victims of these Belleclaire residents were 12 years old or younger, with the youngest listed victim being just 4 years old.
Here is the statement we were provided with:
“I initially took an extreme position and stated that ‘no registered sex offenders should be allowed on the Upper West Side’– but that’s not realistic. There are around 1,600 registered offenders across Manhattan, and neighborhoods cannot wall themselves off.
“Nonetheless, I have fought hard to ensure that no registered sex offenders are staying at the temporary Lucerne Shelter. We are watching the situation at the Belleclaire very closely and have been assured that any offenders with residency restrictions have been moved out. Like every other neighborhood, we have to do everything we can to keep our residents safe, and make sure that any residents who have a history with the criminal justice system are getting the supervision and services they need.”
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In addition to this statement, Helen Rosenthal sent out another email on Sunday, August 9.
In the email, she states that “While I understand the anger and fear of many constituents (exacerbated by the lack of information from the City) and was initially moved to respond in very stark terms, I regret stating that the Upper West Side would not accept any more people who are homeless.”“That being said, as a mother, a staunch feminist, and advocate for survivors– I will be hawkeyed about ensuring that laws regarding sex offenders’ residency, and proximity to schools and playgrounds, are being closely followed.”
In the August 9 email, Rosenthal also provides a breakdown of who is residing at each hotel.
She states that of the 288 residents at Hotel Belleclaire, 100 are women. The focus of this shelter is job placement assistance, and Rosenthal states that roughly one-third of the residents are currently working.
The Belnord, she states, is housing about 100 male residents, and specializes in mental health and crisis intervention programs.
Rosenthal states that The Lucerne specializes in drug addiction recovery and other mental health issues, and is currently housing about 283 male residents.
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And to address to registered sex offenders living at Hotel Belleclaire, Rosenthal’s August 9 email includes the following statement:
“Those with residency restrictions (restricted by state law from living within a thousand feet of a school) have been moved out. The City made a mistake in placing any individuals with these restrictions at the Belleclaire. The Dept of Homeless Services (DHS) tells us that it was one individual.
“There are no residency restrictions on the remaining clients. We follow up with the DHS directly with our questions, as it is unclear how regularly the NYS sex offender registry is updated.”
Here is a link to the full August 9 email.
More coverage on the temporary homeless shelters of the UWS.
There is not ONE offense anywhere where it was estsblished proximity to a so-called park or school was a factor in offending. The only thing residency restrictions do is make life more unstable and reoffense rates HIGHER than they otherwise would be.
The question becomes, can society create a fictional public safety policy or law whose outcome is a loss of safety for the offender (loss of housing) and results in lower public safety (higher rates of reoffending)?
The answer is, NO.
I tefuse to follow laws applied ex-post facto and has no basis in public safety. In fact, the registry is so dangerous to public safety and only has punitive outcomes, it has become an inherent RIGHT to flee the registry and do whatever I can to avoid registry laws.
You all have thrown people on a registry, labeled them dangerous and then used social pressure and politics to automatically isolate people from society until they are desperate outcasts, alone and hopelesss.
My punishment is OVER. You all don’t get to create comprehensive police states around groups that a legislature is the sole branch who defines who is dangerous and who populates a “dangerous list”.
Public safety is all about integration for ex-cons. On a registry there is no safety. By not being on a tegistry I am integrated and a productive member of society. On a registry I am an outcast and desperate, unable to care for myself.
The law allows no recources for those that does not pose any danger to society. The law allows for no challenges or appeals. A presumption of dangerousness applied by a legislature is inherently illegal.
Your registry is not a civil law, but a cruel punishment that I will never follow again.
Taking people’s housing under a public policy of shifting danger to another jurisdiction is illegal.
you should have thought about all this before you offended. if 10 million guys like you go through hell to save 1 Carlie Brucia or Megan Kanka it’s all worth it.
The problem, Joe, is that the majority of the “10 million guys” you are referring to are not like the perpetrators for Carlie Brucia or Megan Kanka. I agree that there are some very dangerous individuals out there who need to be monitored if not incarcerated for the rest of their lives.
The national registry actually has just under one million people on it. It started off in 1992 with around 30 sex offenses that could land you on it. Today there are well over 100 offenses. There are people on the national registry who are there because they publicly urinated, exposed themselves one time 30 years ago to a female, as a juvenile sent a picture of their genitals to a friend through a text (distribution of child pornography), as a 21-year-old in the state of Florida had consensual sex with a 16-year-old male/female whom they married once getting out of prison, and I have only just begun with the sex crimes that are nothing like the ones who kidnap, rape, and murder. There are also individuals with autism, aspergers, and all sorts of different types of dementia on the registry.
Patty Wetteringly was the mother who jumpstarted Congress into forming the registry after her son was kidnapped, raped, and murdered. She only intended the registry for people like the man who killed her son. She has now publicly stated that the registry has been hijacked with too many people on it that should not be.
What would greatly help in these cases in Manhattan and throughout the country would be to use risk management assessments. Even the federal government has requested that states use these assessments as many on the registry are not a threat to society with the re-offense rate (committing another sex crime) being in the single digits when all registrants are taken collectively. Check out the video at casomb.org.
How about if a a million guys go through hell and only a few more kids are harmed as a result?
It has been shown that making desperate outcasts and unlinited public notification actually raises reoffense levels.
But a few kids sacrificed are worth it, eh?
It should be noted I don’t go through hell. I refuse your registry. Remember? I made it very clesr that your registry is an illegal pumishment. I don’t follow illegal punishments.
Somebody call the wambulance. Rudy is sad that he got punished for being a douchbag and thinks him and his kind are the victims here lol.
You don’t evdn make sense. I am a victim of what?
Punished for being a douchnag?
But the funny thing is, you all can’t stop punishing outside of court.
I decided that, no, I will not be a victim. You all just pissed because you can’t make me a victim.
Your right millions more should go through hell so that no kids are harmed you pervert.
So how old was the boy who’s penis you touched?
Well.. take the number of sex crimes that you were accused of and mutiply it by 10..and then you have your answer.
Thank you, Helen Rosenthal, for having the courage to realize that you made a hasty assumption and are now rectifying it. Unfortunately, most of our political leaders do not have the moral integrity that you have.
Florida Action Committee
@FLActionCom
I was wondering how Rudy101 got out of being on the register…..
I wonder that too. Either God is on my side or I am just lucky.
But remember a few things, my neighbors don’t fear me, I am a productive member of society, I have stable housing and I have a stake in the community I live in.
In other words, I am safe which makes me safe for the community.
You are not really going to argue that taking my housing and making me a pariah in the community is safe for the community, are you?
My punishment is over. There are no do-overs, whoopsies we meant for more punishments or that you all can think, without evidence your registry actually protects the community.
The prohibitions on ex-post facto punishments are invoked. The clause that disallows double punishments is invoked and the prohibitions on cruel and unusual punishments are invoked.
I understand in the “land of the free” you all have taken it upon yourself to support a legislative power to form comprehensive police states around groups a legislature defines. But that is not how it works.
Now, if you all think I continue to be dangerous I will avail myself of a court hearing so the State can bring that evidence. You all can use what I did as evidence of dangerousness but you can’t make it dispositive. I get to bring in evidence too.
However, a court is ONLY held to the evidence and NOT to a legislative determination.
Didn’t you guys ever learn that it is illegal for a lawmaking body to create lists of outcasts without individually determining dangerousness? OR to offer a path to not being dangerous?
I shudder to think what my life would be like today being on a registry. It literally did not work for me at all. All it did was make my life so unstable that if I didn’t leave the registry I was going to be homeless.
I have never been homeless. I don’t know how to do it. If that is part of the results of being on a registry I refuse it. Homelessness as an outcome to a public safety law is certainly not rational or reasonable. Or don’t you care?
I know most of you all will spew out slogans of, “if it saves even one child” but the evidence is pretty clear… desperate outcasts only make victims.
Do you understand? A registry with unlimited public notification and complete social isolation without hope and without a future is inherently dnagerous to public safety.
But you all know all about that anyway That is what this whole controversy is about. The hopeless, homeless and damaged of which the vast majority are felons and disenfranchised are taking residence. Most of you all want the failures society creates banished from your sight. No one has really given them a home. It is just a short term solution for a pandemic. Afterward, the plan is for the vast majority to continue wandering the streets and into and out of jail. Creating new victims and chaos wherever they land.
I refuse your system. Thank God, I did.
You all need, policies of hope that consist of job training, rehabilitation of healthy social systems, mental and drug treatment and forgiveness. It is hard to support, I know. Some will always fail spectacularly. But right now almost all of them are failing because that is the system that was set up.
I am safe from your system. Thank you very much.
Your registry is OVER for me. It has no meaning nor would it accomplish anything. You have a good night.
The CEO of Project Renewal’s mission is to convert hotels into permanent residences for the homeless?
https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-convert-hotel-rooms-into-permanent-housing-20200614-rybct3qys5fihlretkjkfj42uy-story.html
With the support of city officials:
https://www.thecity.nyc/housing/2020/6/25/21303923/hotels-could-become-affordable-housing-in-nyc
Eric Rosenbaum, Joslyn Carter and Chirlane McCray were all pushing to convert the Larchmont Hotel (99 female residents) into a permanent residence and have succeeded.This solution didn’t work in the 60s-70s and took years to undue the problems we are all familiar with. Remember the Endicott Hotel and Needle Park? Importantly, these challenged people are not getting the help they need.
Is this where this isgoing? Is this policy?
Are the 671 residents who were moved because of covid getting tested?
To all those applauding the new residents and Ms. Rosenthal’s acceptance of the situation – have you lived through constant harrassment on the streets as a minority woman? Have you thought constantly about which streets to avoid or how to dress, so as not to attract unwanted attention? I have. Everyday, when I was growing up. It was not in NYC. It undermines your confidence and makes you insecure and paranoid. The sudden deluge of this brazen, unwanted behavior on the UWS by our new neighbors means that my daughter is going to have to face the same things that I thought I had left behind. Shame on you Ms. Rosenthal, for calling yourself a feminist. And all you faux liberals/progressives for sacrificing our security.
Why can’t any of these hedge funds investors just buy the uws hotels and cancel the project renewal contracts? The city can then move the homeless men to non residential neighborhoods. Worse case scenarios have homeless families or battered women only shelters allowed in residential areas.
Why can Chirlane McCray with her 1.2 billion dollars build one!
She definitely should. Personally, I think all sex offenders should be castrated. They can never change and children and adults could feel safer
Dear, Helen,
In a crisis (or this case, a catastrophe), it is paramount for elected officials to act ethically and transparently or the public trust is lost. Once lost, that trust is difficult, if not impossible, to regain. The trauma of the pandemic has been amplified by filling UWS hotels with inappropriate high-risk residents (inappropriate is not limited to sex offenders, IMO) and the residents of the UWS have been insulted by the thoughtless, reckless policy decisions to secretly fill hotels with people who are now wreaking havoc on the neighborhood.
My advice is to immediately muster all of your influence to undo the damage to the neighborhood you have facilitated (for whatever ill thought out reasons). If you can admit to poor messaging and communication, surely you can admit that Hotel-gate was a mistake. If you fail in this, your political career will almost surely be over and your reputation irreparably sullied. I am only one vote and one voice – but I will not forget this train wreck and am as mad as hell.
Gotta love it when rich people cloak their fear of the poor in “but who will think of the children????” rhetoric.
Like, yes. There are more people visibly sleeping outside. You may see things you find unpleasant. You can also cross the street and have a thoughtful conversation with your kids about inequality…….or just stay the hell inside in the midst of a damn pandemic.
But no. Heaven forbid that their money fails to insulate you from having to witness suffering.
I wish the city were doing more to provide supportive services for the people being sheltered, but my neighbors screeching “but why do the poors have to be put heeeeeere?”….aren’t getting at that.
You obviously don’t have a child that you are getting prepared to walk to school. Homelessness is not the problem. Men getting drunk, shooting heroin, masturbating, cat calling, demanding money, offering drugs to mothers with children in strollers, chasing a mother and child saying “I will cut both of you” is the problem. These examples above have happened to our neighbors. This situation is terrifying for parents who chose to raise kids on the UWS partly for the family friendly nature of the neighborhood.
Actually, I am expecting and also grew up in this city in what used to be considered an unsafe neighborhood 30 years ago.
The way this community has reacted these shelters have left such a bad taste in my mouth that I don’t think this is a place to raise my kids that would teach them important values and morals.
All those things have happened – okay how do we know these were a result of these shelters? This is not some new phenomenon, ya just turned a blind eye and stayed between lincoln center and 96th – we can seek transparency from the city to involve neighbors etc but this fear the poor nonsense and shunning those seeking help (again there will always be bad apples in any group of ppl) is just disgusting. No one seems to care about the hotel owners who probably are able to stay in business bc of these city contracts or focus on how crappy homeless services and OUR HOUSING CRISIS are that the need for this many hotels BY ITSELF should be upsetting, not because of who is it in, but because of how many.
You are literally asking the city to just move these ppl closer to other ppls children. If you actually cared about anyone but yourselves you would be angry at the system and not have this continued target practice again the less fortunate.
I care deeply about the community and so far this program has failed. I personally would like to see the clients that need the most support (ie. the ones committing crimes, doing hard core drugs/still drug using) be moved to more a more appropriate and supportive place not in a residential area. They need 24/7 services and help. These men are being warehoused and the criminal behaviors on the streets are not being addressed. Anyway, good luck with your pregnancy. There are all kinds of people here in the city and most of us who raise families in the UWS are here because we love that. I don’t judge homelessness but I don’t think the implementation of this program is acceptable.
Are you serious? Crying for the owner of the Lucerne, Sam Domb? You are clueless!!!! I live within a block of the Lucerne and my kids go to school a block away too. There are active drug users, many of them, in the hotel. According to the head of Project Renewal who by the way seems straightforward and reasonable. Please explain to me why if the point is to prevent the spread of covid why it wouldn’t make more sense to put sex offenders and active heroine addicts in airport hotels rather than near my kids. Because you care more about Sam Domb????
I do not ACTUALLY care about the owners of the hotel my point is that all this fear-mongering is focused on the bad apples. And again we can argue that the cities plan is shit, there are active drug users everywhere, what rock have you lived under?
Airports hotels are currently being used to quarantine travelers and NYers who are required to quaratine but do not have the space in their apartments to do so. This issue is so much bigger than the UWS, its a housing crisis, a lac kof social services over decades ETC. If you actually cared, your anger would be targeted differently. But like I said “think the [white/middle class] children” is always a great line so cant blame ya there.
Just diddle children, get into the system, plea everyone is against you, get arrested.. then you get housing and support for living in a community that abides by laws.. great, let me quit my day job and get started.
Barbara – call me after you are sexually assaulted and your life, and all who love you are in ruins. Let’s see how supportive you are then of these criminals.
Lisa – thank you for showing this forum the true colors of the UWS and its fine residents. What scum. No one is defending criminals. I hope you nor anyone you know is ever sexually assaulted, its a traumatizing experience no one should go through. May you seek the help and guidance you need.
Amen. One sane person here.
Men getting drunk, shooting heroin, masturbating, cat calling, demanding money, offering drugs to mothers with children in strollers, chasing a mother and child saying “I will cut both of you” is the problem.
Problem? IT’S JUST A MYTH.
Karma. Gotta love it!
People screaming loudly on facebook, writing letters like this, and encouraging the Guardian angels to patrol our streets, are the ones making people more afraid, and making residents who are away for the summer wonder if they should come back at all. The owner of Nice Matin went on the record saying the alarmism is costing him more business than the men TEMPORARILY housed next door. The most serious incidents she writes about happened weeks ago, before the NYPD and DHS increased security. And the stabbing was by a man not housed in these hotels. Almost everyone admits the situation has gotten much better. Yes there is apparently drug dealing going on, and that’s not ok, but it’s also not directed at residents or making them actually less safe. The crime stats do NOT back up what this writer claims.
It’s alarmism that’s making people FEEL unsafe, while in reality they are more safe here than most neighborhoods. We have every right to seek safety for ourselves and our children, but lying about what’s actually happening, and raising $100k to hire a lawyer and communications pro to demand EVICTION for everyone at these hotels, does more damage to the wonderful nature of this neighborhood than helping out the most desperate among us does.
You want to HELP the UWS? Get off Amazon and shop local, join SaveOurStores movement, and let the City Council know they must figure out how to regulate scaffolding so it doesn’t remain up for years while no work is being done.
(You can see all crime stats at compstat. Burglaries and Robberies are up (like shoplifting, bicycle thefts.) Last month were 3 more assaults than the yr before. Perpetrators not named as hotel residents.)
I posted this on the wrong article, my bad. Points still stand.