Judge blocks plan to turn LI hotel into homeless shelter

NEW YORK - Members of the Concerned Jericho Parents group say they are pleased with a judge’s decision to grant a preliminary injunction against plans for a homeless shelter at the former site of the Hampton Inn in Jericho.

“We would be open to homeless residing in Jericho as long as the plan made sense,” said an organizer of the group.

“Laura Curran should’ve thought better to put a homeless shelter where zoning violations have occurred,” said another.

The plan was to house 80 homeless families in the former hotel. But homeowners against the project claim everything about the process lacked transparency. They say the nonprofit group neglected to follow zoning laws and didn’t have proper permits for the property. 

But the director of communications for County Executive Laura Curran says Nassau County will continue to monitor this case.  

Alexander Roberts, Executive Director of Community Housing Innovations, which operates 30 shelters on Long Island, said this would've been a way to move families out of unsupervised motels in the area where they received no social services. He calls the judge’s ruling disappointing especially since none of the existing shelters on Long Island went through a local permit process. 

“The fact is that none of the 100 or so homeless shelters funded by Suffolk and Nassau county have special use permits,” he said.  

Roberts hopes the state will intervene in the case since they by law they are responsible for homeless housing. FOX 5 NY reached out to Governor Cuomo’s office for comment and haven’t heard back.

“We need them to intervene in the lawsuit and get the preliminary injunction vacated,” Roberts said.  

Community Housing Innovations says unless the state or county intervenes a lengthy court battle may become cost-prohibitive.