Community Board No. 8 Invites You To An Informational Meeting on the proposed Homeless Shelter at 1173 Bergen Street for 100 single men aged 50+
SATURDAY MARCH 4, 2017 at 11AM at 1173 BERGEN STREET
(BET. BROOKLYN & NEW YORK AVENUES)
Representatives from NYC Department of Homeless Services, NYC Department of Social Services, Core Services, NYPD, and local Elected Officials will be present to answer your questions.
Please come out and let your voice be heard! For additional information, please call 718-467-5574.
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http://www.brooklynian.com/discussion/38821/new-york-christian-center-academy-has-bamboozled-us
...that is why the city is only required to hold meetings notifying the community that they are coming, as opposed to trying to get their permission and support.
http://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/our-programs/advocacy/legal-victories/the-callahan-legacy-callahan-v-carey-and-the-legal-right-to-shelter/
Only a few members of the public believe their complaints will make a difference.
Unsurprisingly, supporters are rare.
However, the residents must be over 50 years old to get in.
...it is very tough to become younger than 50 once you are older than 50.
The saying "there are old ones, and there are bold ones. ...but there are few old, bold ones" usually holds true.
...but it won't be enough, and we live in the present.
https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-cuomo-directs-new-york-state-division-budget-sign-2-billion-homelessness-and-housing
http://files.constantcontact.com/76cbb4ad401/752af113-3a13-4406-a4bc-592262e18e9a.pdf?ver=1488543556000
Um, they are having the meeting because they are required to have the meeting.
They know very few people want a shelter in this location. ...people only want shelters in OTHER locations.
CB8 writes:
POSTPONED!!!!! 1173 BERGEN STREET SHELTER MEETING. MORE DETAILS TO COME AS THEY ARRIVE.
DeBlasio's plans to open the 1st shelter is within a four block radius (also known as a "cluster") already hosting the following:
With all the above info, the residents of Crown heights are clearly not unsympathetic and not anti-homeless.
Can we take "kick me" sign off our backs now, DeBlasio?Councilman Robert Cornegy (Bed Stuy & Crown Heights) and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, both told the mayor to his face that they oppose the Bergen shelter at a recent town hall in Bed Stuy. They're both lifelong neighborhood residents and our local elected representatives.
Cornegy also showed up at last night's CB8 meeting to voice his objection.
There's a petition circulating, please read and sign if you support: https://www.change.org/p/bill-de-blasio-stop-crown-heights-20th-shelter-from-opening-bergen-house-homeless-shelter-for-104-men
and share with friends, neighbors and your block associations.
[note: there's another hand-written petition with hundreds more signatures for the less-socially-connected]
My guess is that the Nostrand/Atlantic site is the La Quinta Inn at 1229 Atlantic. It is probably part of the 436-room expansion in the city's homeless hotel portfolio that is the subject of this NYT article: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/07/nyregion/homelessness-new-york-city-hotels.html
I’m sympathetic to the oversaturation argument, but if those of you who oppose this shelter succeed and get the City to put it in some other community, where do you think it will go? Park Slope? Boerum Hill? No way. It will end up in Brownsville or Canarsie. My guess is that you wouldn’t care either way so long as it’s not here.
The fact is shelters will go where the real estate is cheaper. A property the size of 1173 Bergen would cost two or three times as much in Gowanus or DUMBO. I’d rather see the City spend the limited dollars budgeted for homeless services on helping more homeless people rather than buying real estate in expensive areas. If that means my community has to cope with a few hundred more human beings in distress, so be it. I for one will welcome them. I’m saddened to see that many of my neighbors will not.
Your argument doesn't hold up. The city owns property everywhere. For instance, the City-owned Parking Lot at 530 thru 542 Dean Street...How about putting up a giant homeless shelter there? Oh wait, you mentioned that in your post: http://brooklynian.com/discussion/46399/plans-for-city-owned-parking-lot-at-530-thru-542-dean-street#latest and you say, "Why not put affordable housing on this property?" Well, that's what we say, too, about 1173 Bergen: Why not affordable housing on this property?
@RadGirl Thank you for the walk down memory lane. I don't reread my old Brooklynian posts as often as I should. It’s true that I don’t go walking around the neighborhood scouting out sites for new homeless shelters, but perhaps I ought to.
I agree that oversaturation is a problem, though Crown Heights is by no means the most oversaturated community in the City. I assume that this is why you lump Bedford-Stuyvesant into your talking points in order to goose the numbers.
I also agree that the City is inept (or worse) at siting new shelters, communicating with the community, and dealing with the homelessness epidemic in general. DHS is non-transparent in its site selection and inarticulate in its community outreach. The fact that just last night they would not disclose the number of beds in the shelters they plan to close is outrageous. That even pissed me off, and I support this thing. However, there is no other entity with a billion dollar budget focused on helping homeless people.
And I also agree that the people who live and work within vicinity of the Bedford-Atlantic shelter suffer numerous quality of life issues and other grievances that the City does not address as well as they should. But not all shelters are alike, and 1173 Bergen is not looking like another Bedford-Atlantic. I lived down the block from the Institute for Community Living facility on St. Marks and Brooklyn for two years and would have never known there was a shelter there if I hadn’t been curious about the building and googled it.
Now, if CORE doesn’t live up to its obligations at 1173 Bergen I’ll gladly join the community in pushing back hard. I’ll also gladly join any effort to push the City to build more supportive and affordable housing on property it owns in CB8 (like at 530-542 Dean Street, as I mentioned in that prior post of mine you dug up).
I won’t sign your petition, however. I think the magnitude of the current homelessness epidemic requires rapid action, even though that action will of necessity be messy and imperfect and will affect certain communities more than others, for reasons that are complex and unpopular to discuss. That’s reality.
Instead of a “shut it down” posture, I would instead support getting the City to make certain explicit commitments about this and future shelters in Crown Heights. For instance, get them to commit to convert 1173 Bergen into permanent supportive housing once the City's homeless numbers fall from the current 60,000 to a lower benchmark. Or get a commitment from the City to convert the Brower Park library building into affordable housing once the library relocates to the Children's Museum.
If the City wants to place an extraordinary burden on Crown Heights as it struggles to solve the homelessness epidemic I won't say no. But I would push for the community to receive extraordinary benefits in recompense.
What does this mean? Will crown heights be expected to provide much for the shelters? I understand the anxiety around having more shelters or homesless people than other areas, but my understanding is that they're pretty reliant on the city.
As a resident of Crown Heights, I know for certain that the folks who live here are not anti-shelter--we are anti over saturation. As it was mentioned at the meeting, we have one hospital, Interfaith. This hospital has been on the verge of closing too. How do you justify placing all these facilities, (e.g. shelters, halfway houses, methadone clinics, etc.) in an area where resources are being taken away?
The Mayor's plan is irresponsible and poorly executed. His plan clearly shows how little he thinks of our community as well as the homeless. The homeless need their own affordable apartments.
It is time that these developers and investors are held accountable. They receive a boat load of subsidies and tax breaks. They need to start allotting more apartments at below market rate.
Housing the homeless in shelters cost more money than subsidizing their rent in an affordable apartment.
I still have a few questions since I'm not completely understanding the conversation here --
A hospital closer doesn't mean it's being taken away. It means it can't support itself and no one is stepping in to fill that role. So I don't see how this plays into the question of Crown Heights not having the resources to support shelters?
Do the homeless need their own affordable housing? I always thought the goal was to help the homeless - and all, really - become self sufficient citizens. Subsidized housing doesn't really check that box.
Also, developers are allowing units for below market rate in exchange for breaks. The tax code that enforced that exchange is what led to all the luxury, high rises we see around us. If we can acknowledge that developers are business people & not the government that functions at a real loss, what role do developers play here?
What resources does crown heights not have but will will have to spend with new shelters?
Dept of Sanitation facilities
Bus Depots
High schools
Housing projects
Probation and Parole
Drug treatment
Sewage treatment
Courthouses
Fast food strips
Auto repair shops
All these are places that no one especially wants in their neighborhood, yet some areas are "over saturated".
They are located where they are for lots of reasons. ....having an affordable, suitable site available seems primary.
De Blasio’s half-baked plan does not address long-term ways to prevent and solve homelessness, showing his shortsightedness.
Mayor de Blasio’s plan is not a sound solution and makes Central Brooklyn the de facto “home” of the homeless for decades to come.
Mayor de Blasio says he is “turning the tide,” but he is bringing a tsunami of homelessness to Crown Heights, reinforcing racial segregation and a cycle of poverty for an area carrying far more than its fair share of homeless shelters.
North Crown Heights, (which is the area 1172 Bergen is, see on map) already includes 11 halfway houses and mental health facilities (that we know of), plus two larges cale methadone clinics, including Interfaith Medical Center’s methadone treatment program at 882 Bergen Street, four blocks from the proposed Bergen House Homeless Shelter. [Source: local block associations]
...no more mid week vacancies.
"Desmond Atkins, a lifelong resident of Crown Heights, accused the Department of Homeless Services on Wednesday of continuing a legacy of racial discrimination by opening a men's shelter in his neighborhood—a part of Brooklyn that is majority black and, he believes, already saturated with similar facilities.
'People who look like me, or who speak other languages, typically are placed in neighborhoods and areas that are dumped upon,' said Atkins, who is black. 'This community was redlined when I was a child in the '60s and the '50s... This community should not be a dumping ground.' "
...it would not surprise me if the majority of the new shelters end up in ENY, Hunts Point or other even poorer, less expensive (blacker?) areas.
I think Gothamist buried the lede on this story.
DeBlasio’s feel-good arguments about preserving “family” and “community” in the location of new shelters is a red herring. The new shelter on Bergen is taking people from ALL OVER BROOKLYN, not just the immediate neighborhood. There is therefore no reason why the same shelter couldn’t be put in less over-saturated neighborhoods. Rather than doing something new, DeBlasio is perpetuating business as usual: moving poor and troubled men to historically poor communities that lack the political connections and economic strength of other neighborhoods. This just keeps kicking people when they're down.
The mayor initially justified locating new shelters in already over-saturated communities by claiming “We were doing the whole thing wrong, just like our predecessors had done the whole thing wrong because there was no reference to community, there was no reference to family.” He continued, “We believe there’s much more chance of people being respected and accepted if they’re close to the neighborhood they come from.”
But now DHS has “clarified” that the men at this shelter will be from all of Brooklyn. So, if you are an older man who falls on hard times ANYWHERE in Brooklyn, you can come to “your community” and your “family” in Crown Heights. What a load of crap.
DeBlasio should know better. He helped in the semi-successful fight against the Atlantic Armory’s conversion into an intake center for all of NYC by making the same arguments about over-saturation and the Fair Share act. Now, his supposed commitment to preserving “family” and “community” reads more like a bait-and-switch technique.
...they seek to have the island replaced by smaller jails located throughout the city.
Do you think DOCS will be spending its money in areas that it gets the fewest beds per dollar?
I would add that the city can argue that it is presently at risk of violating the Callahan rulings, and can likely show several attempts to find alternative sites that did not bear fruit.
When he halted shelter openings, was he under the illusion that Right To Shelter had magically expired?
That Coalition for The Homeless would walk away from their hard won victories?
Bergen St. Homeless Shelter Site Part Of $20M Fraud Scheme
Yowsers!! DeBlasio, what ever were you thinking? Didn't you just pull yourself out of the mud?https://patch.com/new-york/new-york-city/s/g3fm4/bergen-st-homeless-shelter-site-part-20m-fraud-scheme-lawsuit-says
That control then must be durable enough to survive whatever drama the owners of the site go through.
My prediction would be an opening in late May.
Judge Levine states the sides will come together, "with the hope and belief that something good can come of the negotiations."
For those in the "shut-it-down" camp, what exactly is their negotiating chip besides further stalling or preventing it from opening?