Pan American Motor Inn was once a promising idea for a luxury hotel that was strategically placed such that it would be close to the 1964 World Fair in Flushing Meadows Park, and the Mets stadium. The Pan American Motor Inn, was a very ambitious project, with 216 rooms, and luxuries such as an outdoor swimming pool, health club, dining facility for 250 people and to top it all off, the rooms were air-conditioned and came with free television and parking.

Unfortunately, the hotel was not successful, and today, along with other nearby hotels, it is currently a homeless shelter. The neighborhood around the Pan American Motor Inn have been trying to resist this change. Asian residents have a perceived image that homeless individuals bring crime along with them, making the area unsafe, which caused the tensions between the Asians and homeless individuals. My parents took it to an extreme during the incident, as my middle school was next to the hotel, and I was told by my parents to stop going to the McDonalds across the street from the Pan American Hotel, as they were afraid that I would be mugged or kidnapped.

On the local level, there are two major opinions against the establishment of the homeless shelters in hotels. The perspective of the Asian Americans that live nearby the Pan American hotel, and the community board’s perspective. The Asian Americans have been protesting over the Pan American Hotel, as the homeless people that were brought into the hotel have disturbed their community. The nearby business owners claim that the crime rates for shoplifting, public urination, and panhandling have increased. Even on an individual scale, there are tensions going on between the homeless and the Asian American protesters. Mr. Gao, a local business owner asks “Why do they want to give them free money? We have to work from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.” As an Asian American myself, I can confirm that living completely off welfare from the government is mostly looked down upon, because it feels unfair that someone gets all the benefits without having to work while the next person is working 12-hour shifts.

Meanwhile, on a slightly higher level of organization, the planning community is more so concerned with the idea of what a hotel is meant to be. In a statement published by the community district, (quote below) the board seems to be focusing on getting rid of the homeless shelters in hotels in order to help boost the tourism output of the area, and to possibly hold hotel owners accountable for profiting off of making their hotels homeless shelters. This suggests some sort of miscommunication between the community board, and the community itself, as there was not a single mention of the unrest and anger from the community.

The increase in hotels converting into homeless shelters seems to be part of a bigger problem that the even community board seems to be missing. This problem is homelessness. Homelessness is likely caused by the increasing housing costs. According to the American Housing Survey conducted by the US Census in 2017, 19% of the participants spend 60% and more of their income on housing costs. Out of this 19%, 9% of the participants have spent 100% or more of their housing income. This is concerning, as 9% of the population of New York are spending 100% of their monthly income over their home.

When we compare this data to 2015, we see almost an identical set of data. This signifies that Whatever the government’s been doing to tackle homelessness has not really been effective, as they are not focusing on the root problem. This is shown by how the hotels are still being rented out to homeless families, even after 5 years. The mayor has said that the decision to convert the Pan American Hotel was going to be temporary. This is true, as the purpose of the hotel is to hold the homeless until affordable housing can be found. However, affordable housing might be hard to come by, as even if the government were to forcibly buy the land from a landlord through eminent domain, the land’s market value may still be extremely high. This, and the costs of building the homes may result in the affordable housing being slightly more expensive, which would make living in them more challenging.

In addition to the problem of housing costs, the conversion of hotels into homeless shelters seems to indicate that the tourism in my community is not as high as it used to be. Previously, I discussed that the Pan American Hotel was once meant to be a luxury hotel that was close to the New York’s World’s Fair in 1964-65, and the New York Mets’ new stadium.  This detail seems to imply that the tourism of my community had a peak, which made the original owner put time and money into building the hotel. However, the downfall, marked by the eventual conversion of the hotel suggest that the hotel is not getting much business anymore, implying that my community might not be a tourist hotspot anymore.

All in all, by looking into the Pan American Hotel’s conversion into a homeless shelter, we can see that there is a homeless problem in New York that is caused by expensive housing costs. These expensive housing costs would also make affordable housing problematic, as the government might spend too much money making the affordable housing, which could result in a loss of money, or more expensive affordable housing. Also, hotels converting into homeless shelters would indicate that Elmhurst isn’t a good tourist attraction, which can potentially remove a fairly important asset for Elmhurst.

Bibliography

1)Li, Xue, (june 19, 2014)”纽约一酒店将被改建成游民收容所 华人抗议(图)”[A hotel in New York will be converted into a Chinese protest at the nomadic shelter (Photos)] Retrieved from http://www.chinanews.com/hr/2014/06-19/6297599.shtml

2)Marzlock, R., Pan Am, & Queens Chronicle. (n.d.). The Pan Am, before the shelter. Retrieved from https://www.qchron.com/qboro/i_have_often_walked/the-pan-am-before-the-shelter/article_32ff7b55-bf51-551d-b55d-a6c5c566fb67.html

3)State of the Homeless 2018. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/state-of-the-homeless-2018/

4) Taylor, K., & Singer, J. E. (2014, July 25). In Queens, Immigrants Clash With Residents of New Homeless Shelter. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/26/nyregion/homeless-shelters-opening-in-queens-stirs-ugly-exchanges.html

5) U.S. Census Bureau (2015). Housing Census of New York. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/ahs/data.html.

6)U.S. Census Bureau (2017). Housing Census of New York. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/ahs/data.html.