For this assignment, I would like to cover a hotel in Maspeth that is housing a couple dozen homeless men. The rooms of the hotel are currently being rented out to these homeless men and the city is covering the per diem cost of the men living there. There was a lot of controversy regarding turning the hotel in a shelter for homeless people with a lot of the locals showing up to protest this very cause. This particular hotel owner also owns another hotel in another area of Queens, but is not using that as a shelter for the homeless, though he has said that he will not allow the city to rent hotels from his other hotel because they blocked the motion to turn the hotel into a shelter. With homelessness so prevalent in New York City, I think it’s important to address the issue and see homeless people for who they are, people. I believe that the city’s cause is a noble one. I would love the chance to interview the hotel owner and get his perspective on the matter and what he thinks about the city renting out his rooms to the homeless. Although it does not seem like an ideal situation for him, I would like to know if it is hurting his business and what his thoughts were about the movement to turn the hotel into a shelter. Additionally, I think it’s important to try and get a grasp on how the guests have been, if there’s been any trouble since they’ve been renting the rooms, and why if he’s being paid for the rooms is it an issue. I would also love an opportunity to interview a guest at the hotel, whether it be a homeless person, which I would prefer to do, or someone else who is staying at the hotel just as part of their stay. I would like their perception on what the city is doing, if they think it is a good initiative, etc. If the person I am interviewing is just there for the stay, I would like to know if they felt uncomfortable at any point during their stay and if so why/why not or whether they felt it was a worthy cause on the part of the city. However, if it is not possible to interview a hotel guest, I would like to get out onto the streets and interview a local resident about what their feelings are. I know that there were a great deal of protests, so I would ideally love to find someone who attended the protest, but would also be happy to hear from anyone on the opposition.

I believe that this is an important story for New Yorkers to be privy to since homelessness is so rampant in New York. I think it’s important that New Yorkers stop seeing homeless people as part of the pavement and start to see them as human lives. I believe a piece like this could shed light on this and hopefully give New Yorkers a chance to see that there are options for homelessness aside from arresting and jailing them. I think it could open a lot of people’s minds to the amount of space that New York actually has and it could also make people realize that the amount of money that would be allocated to something like this may actually be more beneficial than the cost of arresting them and throwing them in prison or fining them.

For this particular assignment I’d like to combine the usage of videography and photography. I would really like to get a sense of what the scene is like currently — whether things have quieted down or not and to also get shots of how people truly feel about the entire situation. I want to get a feeling about what the climate is like in Maspeth, if there are more or less homeless people than you would encounter in other parts of Queens, and I would also like to know the ethnic make up of that area of Queens. I think it could be really telling as to whether this is a poor area or a gentrified area given the protests.