Janet Miles, Clip 2: Living In A Shelter

Collection: Queens Memory Collection at the Archives at Queens Library: Janet Miles

Date: Time Period: 2011 - 2016; 2016-04-08; Interview recorded: April 8 2016 Material: Digital audio recording made using a digital recorder and Adobe Soundbooth. Dimension: Total running time: 0:06:22

Creator: Janet Miles interviewed by Arbesh Khan and Reshad Hai Identifier: aql:22116 miles-janet-clip2

Description: Jamaica Residence is a non-cooking facility. A lot of the private shelters are regular apartments. You're not allowed to have hot places. Janet Miles and her family have been in the Jamaica Residence for 5 years and they were not expecting to be there that long. They got caught between the old vouchers that Mayor Bloomberg cut off for three years. There was no housing so basically people sat and waited until Mayor De Blasio came and reinstated them. When they first came in, it was very rough. There were a lot of fights amongst residence and staff. The environment changes as people move in and out. Even though it's a shelter, Janet runs a tight ship. Her sons, Matt and Mark, are expected to go to bed and school on time. Now they have a section 8 voucher. The stigma of coming from a shelter hurts but the checks are coming and you have to say you're from a shelter because they pay the first month's rent, broker fees and the security.

Title : Janet Miles, Clip 2: Living In A Shelter

Collection : aql:20455; aql:22183

Creator : Janet Miles interviewed by Arbesh Khan and Reshad Hai

Date : Time Period: 2011 - 2016; 2016-04-08; Interview recorded: April 8 2016

Summary/Description : Jamaica Residence is a non-cooking facility. A lot of the private shelters are regular apartments. You're not allowed to have hot places. Janet Miles and her family have been in the Jamaica Residence for 5 years and they were not expecting to be there that long. They got caught between the old vouchers that Mayor Bloomberg cut off for three years. There was no housing so basically people sat and waited until Mayor De Blasio came and reinstated them. When they first came in, it was very rough. There were a lot of fights amongst residence and staff. The environment changes as people move in and out. Even though it's a shelter, Janet runs a tight ship. Her sons, Matt and Mark, are expected to go to bed and school on time. Now they have a section 8 voucher. The stigma of coming from a shelter hurts but the checks are coming and you have to say you're from a shelter because they pay the first month's rent, broker fees and the security.

Subject : Shelters for the homeless

Relation : Queens Memory Collection at the Archives at Queens Library: Janet Miles

Rights : Contact digitalarchives@queenslibrary.org for research and reproduction requests.

Coverage : Locations discussed: Jamaica, Queens, NY Jamaica (New York, N.Y.) Queens (New York, N.Y.)

Type : Oral history

Format : Digital audio recording made using a digital recorder and Adobe Soundbooth.; Total running time: 0:06:22

Identifier : aql:22116 miles-janet-clip2