Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
REMARKS
Council Member Paladino proposes Creedmoor facility for homeless and addiction treatment
1:15:33
ยท
4 min
Council Member Vickie Paladino proposes repurposing the Creedmoor facility in Queens as a comprehensive solution for homeless and addiction treatment in New York City. She argues that this existing structure could be renovated to provide a large-scale, multi-purpose treatment center.
- Creedmoor is described as a 100-acre campus with the potential for 20,000 beds
- Paladino emphasizes the facility's historical success in treating various conditions, including drug addiction
- She suggests that renovating Creedmoor could be a cost-effective way to address homelessness and addiction on a large scale
Vickie Paladino
1:15:33
So I wanna say there's a place in Queens.
1:15:37
It's very well known.
1:15:38
It was shut down a number of years ago when Willowbrook hit the paper and the state came and closed a great many hospitals.
1:15:46
It was a very good facility.
1:15:48
It was called Creedmoor back in its day, and it was called the Creedmoor Campus.
1:15:54
Now the state owns Creedmoor, and Creedmoor right now is in the middle of redentifying part of it.
1:16:02
It's a hundred acres.
1:16:04
On that hundred acres, there are two buildings.
1:16:08
Actually, they're one building, but they come down there and joined.
1:16:12
And that's got now we're talking about money and where is it going and how we could put it to good use.
1:16:19
If we were to that Creedmoor can hold 20,000 beds.
1:16:26
I have a girlfriend who was a head nurse at Creedmoor many years back, and she maintained a drug addiction, four floors.
1:16:36
You could eat off the floors.
1:16:37
The facility was an amazing place.
1:16:41
They had tennis.
1:16:42
They had a pool.
1:16:43
There there was places for there was a set place for people to go.
1:16:48
Now we understand that there's all those who need to go in, stay two or three months, and be released, and acclimate them back into society as they should be because they're not criminals.
1:16:59
I get very upset when they misconstrue, you know, mental health and people who are criminals.
1:17:07
You can't go to jail and get treated.
1:17:08
It's just not gonna happen.
1:17:10
You need a facility to go to.
1:17:12
Creedmoor offered several different variations on how we could treat those people.
1:17:18
So my question, I guess, for the city and the state of New York is while we are investing billions of dollars, millions or hundreds of millions of dollars, why don't we look into what I'm talking about, which was closed.
1:17:34
It's gonna take money to redo the inside, gut it, and do it.
1:17:39
But in the end, you have a standing building that has nothing wrong with it, I mean, structurally.
1:17:47
And you go in and we do what needs to be done.
1:17:50
And we could actually with 20,000 beds, we have a place for people to go in their different stages of their life.
1:17:59
Whether they could ever be removed, that's there's a facility.
1:18:02
If they're drug addicts and they need a place to go, there's a facility.
1:18:07
There's care that they could go back to that place.
1:18:10
You're talking about a van that drives around.
1:18:13
Well, that's very good.
1:18:14
Yes.
1:18:15
But I I wanna get you gotta get to the the you know, it's a tree.
1:18:20
We gotta get to the bark of the tree, the roots of the tree.
1:18:23
And the way to do that is through a facility called Creedmoor.
1:18:27
I just wanna open that door for you because long before I became unelected, I often said, what are we doing here?
1:18:37
Now on the other part of Creedmoor campus, the governor has given to the city through leasing where they're planning to put housing and stores and a new school and all of that.
1:18:51
But I wanna know what are we doing for the most vulnerable?
1:18:54
What are we doing for the most helpless who don't have good family that they could go to?
1:18:59
There is a support.
1:19:01
It's called Creedmoor.
1:19:02
Let's spend some money wisely and redo the insides of this facility and get this facility up and running.
1:19:11
And I promise you, we got 55,000.
1:19:15
We got home for 22,000 of that 55.
1:19:19
We really need to look into this and examine those two buildings that are on the cycle heading east on the Cross Island Parkway Grand Central Parkway.
1:19:28
And if you would come to Queens, you're probably familiar with it.
1:19:32
It's not my district, But I would love to show you what could be done if we spent our money wisely because we could really help people here.