Sandy Devastates New York LGBT Youth Facility
The superstorm caused severe damage to the Ali Forney Center's drop-in center in Chelsea.
BY Trudy Ring
November 04 2012 2:08 PM ET
http://www.advocate.com/society/youth/2012/11/04/sandy-devastates-new-york-lgbt-youth-facilityAmong the casualties of Superstorm Sandy in New York City is an institution for homeless LGBT youth, the Ali Forney Center's drop-in center on West 22nd Street in the West Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.
Four feet of water from the Hudson River, just half a block away, surged into the facility when the storm hit Monday, executive director Carl Siciliano told the Washington Blade. "Everything is destroyed — all of the electricity in the place, the floors, the computers, the laptops, the phones, files, all the furniture," he said. "Everything is just destroyed. The refrigerator was floating and knocked over, all the food was out. The space is uninhabitable."
However, the organization's lease at that location was going to be up at the end of January, Siciliano told The Advocate, and a new drop-in center space is under renovation in Harlem. It will likely be ready in a few months, he said. The Ali Forney Center housing facilities in Brooklyn and Queens were unharmed, as was its administrative office in midtown Manhattan and another drop-in center in Brooklyn.
