Having spent five weeks at the Greenpoint YMCA during March and April, 2008, I feel reasonably qualified to offer a review of the facilities, the staff, the location, and the surrounding area.

I moved into the Greenpoint 'Y' on Monday, March 17, 2008, and stayed for a full 28 days before moving out for two nights to the North Brooklyn/12 Towns YMCA in the neighborhood of Cypress Hills. I then returning for a week, before moving back to the 12 Towns YMCA.

Facilities
If you are looking for five star accommodation during your stay in New York, don’t stay at the YMCA. Accommodations are basic, but pretty much all that you need for a short or long stay. Although the website states that rooms have televisions and air conditioning, this is not neccasarily the case. Apparently deluxe rooms have them but economy rooms don't, so depending on the time of the year you are staying, you may or may not need air conditioning in particular.

Other reviewers have complained about the smells and vermin. I never saw rats or mice, or even signs of them. However, small brown cockroaches seem to be in plentiful supply. My advice – ignore them or kill them, but don’t let them spoil your stay at Greenpoint or in New York City.

Bathrooms and shower facilities were generally clean and tidy. If they are not, blame the people who make the mess, not the staff who clean these facilities in the morning and again late at night. The water in the showers was always hot and plentiful, and there was always toilet paper available, at least in the fourth floor bathroom facilities that I used.

I did not use the fitness center, pool, or any of the other facilities available to the public so I have no comment to make on these, except to say they are well used by the local community.

A great advantage of staying at the Greenpoint YMCA, is that breakfast is included in the cost of accommodation. You can choose anything from the breakfast menu at the Manhattan 3 Decker Restaurant, with items ranging in price from around $2.50-$5.50. This arrangement is a great money saver in my opinion.

Staff
I can only agree with several comments already on this feedback page. The staff at the Greenpoint 'Y' are mostly young, bored, and show no interest in who is visiting, from where, or for how long. Most of them are just going through the motions, and getting even a “Hi, how are you,” from them is a major achievement. If you have a Polish or Hispanic background, you may have had a different experience to me, but from my perspective, the reception staff really let the Greenpoint YMCA down. Even after staying at Greenpoint four weeks or so, staff could never remember my room number or name.

Location
Even though you have to change subway trains at least once to get to Manhattan, the Greenpoint 'Y' is perfectly located for quick and easy access to the heart of New York City.

Surroundings
The highest concentration of Polish migrants in the whole of the United States is living in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. This is a fact – not a criticism. There are numerous restaurants, bars, cafés, banks, supermarkets – in fact every type of business is represented in the neighborhood with the exception of cinemas.

I enjoyed exploring the neighborhood, and learning about my surroundings, and if you have the time, I would encourage you to do the same. Manhattan does not have a monopoly on the action in New York City, there is plenty going on in Brooklyn as well.

Safety and Security
Yes, it doesn’t hurt that the 94th Police Precinct is directly opposite the YMCA. The latest I returned to Greenpoint YMCA from Manhattan was around 2am. I never felt unsafe or under threat around the Greenpoint 'Y'. In addition, I never felt unsafe in the YMCA itself, or worried about having my room broken into or things stolen.

Apart from some of the reception staff and the cockroaches, I would happily stay at Greenpoint again.

Located in vibrant,safe working class neighborhood. My girlfriend and I stayed four days and found the staff reasonably helpful and our room clean. Contrary to some earlier reviews we read,there were no signs of rodents or bugs in the room. We each received a breakfast ticket good for use at a family restaurant nearby. And when we didn't have hot water one of the days,they gave us a full refund for that day. We were'nt expecting The Marriot,just a safe clean place to lay our heads-and we got it. Also plenty of shops and eateries to visit and it's near the subway. C.L.D., San Diego

Overall, the stay was great. We booked a 2 bedroom room for a week in september.

The hostel is in a mostly polish neighbourhood but it seemed very safe.

The staff at the desk arnt that helpful but we only needed to deal with them the day you get there, every morning for your breakfast tickets and when you are leaving. Breakfast was in a dinner just a short walk away. You order from a set menu. Service isnt great but what do you really expect. It is american breakfast food, fills you up with a lovely sugar rush!

As for the room itself, its a hostel. The tv had a terrible signal but was watchable, there was dust in corners but it wasnt flithy and our air conditioning worked great (which was essential in september). We only spent a few hours in the room a day anyway which is what most people do.

We had to either go up or down one floor to get to the showers/toliets but it wasnt much of a problem. They were clean, and never overly that busy. My only problem was that the water had chlorine in it and you could smell it off your hair.

We had no problem getting into manhattan on the subway, a G line station is just 2 minutes walk away. we took that every morning and changed to a A or C line (I think) train at Hoyt. & Schermerhorn. Only took a maximum of 10 or 15minutes. The full week subway pass cost around $24 for unlimited travel.

If you think its too far away from manhattan remember that manhattan isnt the only place in new york. it was good seeing other parts of the city and the price was great. Taking the subway was just as easy as getting into a cab. Plus it was easy to get back to JFK from there.

I had a 28-day stay here in November 2007. I'm no stranger to budget accommodations having stayed in NYC Ys before as well as the Bowery Whitehouse Hostel, which is essentially a flophouse. I wasn't expecting much, but the Greenpoint Y was still disappointing.
I booked a "deluxe" room and ended up in 412. There’s no elevator in this building and the 4 flights can be brutal with luggage. Upon entering the room, there was an overpowering chemical smell like fresh paint, roach spray, or maybe both? I kept the window wide open, even in 30 degree temps, to avoid headaches and feeling foggy. The decor was definitely terrible – light blue walls and a forest green paisley wallpaper border. The ceiling was erupting and leaking in one corner. The TV got perhaps 5 channels but was hopelessly blurry and had an irremovable box over the screen controls. At the window, there was only a sheer curtain. I quickly replaced it with one of the bed sheets. Speaking of the sheets, they had graffiti on them! Someone had taken a Sharpie and drawn on them. Two old, dark colored towels with an odd, musty scent were provided. They left dark colored lint balls all over my body when I used them after showering and I ended up buying my own towel. Wash clothes are not provided. The doors do not have deadbolts or chains - just terribly flimsy locks.
The closest women's bathroom was one floor down so I often popped into the unlocked men's room nearly across the hall if it was vacant. I rarely found the bathrooms grubby but in the 3rd floor women’s bathroom, there is only one stall in which the door closes and locks. Unfortunately, that toilet overflows so much that a plunger is kept next to it.
One morning, I woke to the sight of a mouse darting across my floor. I later found that one had chewed through a plastic bag and the plastic packaging of some shortbread cookies in a closed drawer. It ate half of the cookies. You cannot keep any food in the rooms here for this reason. They will get to it before you do. There was another occasion on which I had just eaten some take out Thai food. I tied the plastic bag I put the garbage in and put it on my desk. A few minutes later, I saw lettuce flying out of the bag and the bag moving around on the desk!
I traveled into Lower Manhattan daily. To do so, you would take the G train from Nassau Avenue and step across the platform at Hoyt-Schermerhorn to transfer to the A train. Altogether, it took about 30 minutes to get to Fulton Street station.
Housekeeping does not appear to keep a regular schedule. I want to say that they come every other day, but there were days when they cleaned daily and there were spans of days when they didn't clean at all. When they do come, sometimes they restock what you use (towels, plastic cups, etc.) and sometimes they don’t.
You have to pay for WiFi and it’s relatively expensive.
The type of people staying here varied but there generally weren't any really scary types. The front desk is manned 24/7 and there are small globe cameras in most of the halls and common areas.
Many of the residence’s common areas (e.g., 3rd floor WiFi area) are quite grubby and/or smelly.
There really aren't many pluses about the facilities themselves, but Greenpoint is a nice, safe Brooklyn neighborhood. It’s predominantly Polish. There's a police station across the street. Everything you could need is within a block or 2. The complementary breakfast from a local diner is quite good. There are a lot of Thai take out places in this area. Erb and Thai Cafe are good.
If I popped my head out of my window, there was a great view of midtown and the Empire State Building.