TWO BABIES DEAD

City probes Harlem shelter, Qns. incidents

Two babies — a 6-month old from Harlem and a 1-year-old in Queens — were found dead under suspicious circumstances on Tuesday, police sources said.

The younger child was discovered unresponsive and struggling to breathe at the Odyssey House Shelter at about 2 p.m. and was pronounced dead a short time later, the sources said.

The facility, at 219 E. 121 St., is a drug- and alcohol-rehab center that also offers temporary housing for families in treatment. The center’s Web site says it provides furnished two-bedroom apartments with 24-hour supervision.

“There’s so much sadness this time of year, so to hear that something like that happened is disappointing,” said an outpatient at the facility who gave only his f irst name, Luis, 31.

A law-enforcement source told The Post that the baby was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital with an upper respiratory infection on Monday, and was released the same day.

The city Medical Examiner’s Office and the Administration for Children’s Services are investigating the cause of death.

About four hours after the f irst tragedy, the 1-year-old was found unresponsive with neck trauma in an apartment building on Elmhurst Avenue in Flushing, sources said.

The child, whose gender was not immediately available, was pro- nounced dead at a hospital.

A neighbor who said he sometimes cared for the toddler claimed the mother had recently lost her job and was considering moving to China.

“Last time we saw the baby was almost a month ago,” Prabina Shilpakar said. “[The mom] said she can take care of the baby herself, since she lost her job.”

The 33-year-old mother was taken to the 110th Precinct station house where she was being questioned late Tuesday, sources said.

Again, the medical examiner will determine the cause of death.

It was not clear late Tuesday whether any criminality was involved in the incident.

There has been a rash of children dying in city shelters recently, lead- ing to an investigation of both the sites and how child-welfare workers handle abuse cases.

“We are saddened by this troubling news and are investigating the circumstances leading to this incident, along with the NYPD,” a spokesman for the ACS said in a statement about the East Harlem baby’s death.

Zymere Perkins, 6, who was living in and out of shelters with his mother, died in September after being beaten, allegedly by her boyfriend.

In December, two little sisters were scalded to death when a radiator exploded in their family’s Bronx apartment, which the city uses as a shelter.