Bellevue Men's Shelter Review

Despite the lack of workers due to covid, they are supportive as long you trying to get yourself back on track. I'm greatful for even having a place to go due to my situation.

Ok I haven't even been in this shelter a week & I'm already in process of obtaining my housing . Honestly if you want to help yourself this is the place . If you want to destroy yourself this place can help too . It's really up too you & the couple of days here I understood that. Now let me talk about the case manager (Mr.Z) I had the pleasure of meeting. From the getgo he's done nothing but help & push me in right direction. He gives you undivided attention. He truly is amazing . You come here & you want to help yourself ?! Go to Mr.Z. Besides him helping me, we spoke about the importance of nutrition and his athletic endeavors. Hes really smart so when you there with him ... ask questions & talk less but listen more! & I'm blessed to have met him . I'm humbled .

I had a relative missing came all the down here straight from work to try to find out if my relative still live here. I was told " they could not tell me anything ," wow!!! This is a policy that definitely need to be change, when a serious case arrive. This place have me saying thank god, I have a roof over my head. Because this place is a hybrid of rikers island and creedmore.

Great Experience and Friendly Staff. Process is easy and safe place to stay.

Staying in contact with God, Where ever I may go or do, God has called me from a world of darkness into his kingdom of eternal light...

Had to see for myself. Tough times kicked me in the behind but no one bothered me and overall I didn't feel like there was a threat of violence (which I was grateful for) It's a hard job but if your going to do it try harder. The guards were the best part (except for one guy that got mad at me for falling asleep waiting outside one of the offices) he said I was being "disrespectful" and that "this is not the street." Could have been more polite considering...Imagine being kicked while you are down (almost literally).

I say it is what you make it. You can either run the system and use it for what you need it for or let the system run you right in to the ground. What I mean is there is good and bad staff some would act like it there house and you be blessed to stay there. While other staff are actually there to help you. My experience just stay humble a smile and a yes or no with additional to ma'am and sir goes along way it show the worker that you have manners and they will treat you differently then the others. Plus having a job really and I mean really help you jump the line in housing and the overall process. An if you have a job and really show that your job is really important to you over being there. I don't want to mention there names but there some people in the assessment office that will do whatever they can to help you. I'll say this some people can move mountains well they can blow it up they have the dynamite they just need you to bring the flame.

Here is a summary of my experience in the New York City Homeless Assistance Program. This post will focus only on my experience at HRA facilities (therefore this will be Part 1)

Step 1- Account Setup
I arrived about 2:30pm. The HRA Men's Shelter was the main intake shelter for processing most (if not all) cases in the New York City area.

First stop (after going through security check) was providing ID. And answering general questions. Here, I'm assigned a casenumber and ID number.

Next, the "optional" COVID-19 test was required. Lastly, I needed to wait for placement to a quarantine shelter (to wait for my COVID-19 test results). This was where the bulk of the time was spent.

Overall, it was a fairly positive experience. Some people there were more professional than others.

Once carried the proof of taking the COVID-19 test to the intake waiting area. There was nothing to do but wait .... and wait ... until I was called on the phone for more questions and next step explanations.

Last step
The process finished about 5:30pm. I was given a metro card and a shelter invitation (to be taken to the next shelter). The next shelter was the quarantine shelter....

JARDIN CENTRAL SHELTER

To be continued ...
Part 2 will be on my experiences at the Jardin Central Shelter

If there were other sections to the HRA complex, I did not experience those sections. I was only there for about 3 hours for initial paperwork processing.

Most of the staff are trained to help with
Concerns of the persons that live there
And is a decent living envionment..