Bedford Shelter to Possbily Grow

Here's a copy of the article mentioned above. I'm currently very unhappy about the shelter expansion, but if they're talking about replacing what's currently there with something that's better managed, and not bigger, I could be comfortable with it.


E. SIDE SHELTER'S SURPRISE ALLIES
By DOUGLAS MONTERO

May 5, 2008 -- Plans to close a "drop-in" homeless shelter on a swanky Upper East Side block are creating an uproar from a most unlikely source - its well-heeled neighbors.

Members of Community Board 8 have even sent a letter to city officials in support of the Neighborhood Center for Homeless People at 237 E. 77th St.

"We're completely befuddled, dismayed, disappointed," said board Chairman David Liston.

"It just doesn't make any sense. It's doing remarkably good work."

The facility provides such daytime services as counseling, job training and medical treatment and helps the homeless find permanent housing. At night, its clients get bused to shelters with beds.

Anne Teicher, the site's executive director, said the city wants to phase out drop-in centers to focus instead on "Safe Havens," where the homeless get both services and a bed.

Neighbors fear that the center's closing will leave many displaced homeless people wandering the streets and hanging out in Central Park.

The center, which serves 800 men and women a year, learned last month that the city Department of Homeless Services was cutting off its funding: an annual $1.2 million.

The department wants the center, open since 1983, shut by June 30.

Heather Janik, a department spokeswoman, defended the facility's closure as part of her agency's plan to provide 500 Safe Haven beds throughout the city, which currently has 208.

"Safe Havens are better equipped to serve those individuals the community values with access to outreach serves," she said.

Teicher plans to meet with department officials today in hopes of getting a one-year reprieve to phase out the shelter and give its 40 employees a chance to find other jobs, center spokeswoman Bonnie McEwan said.

Here's the text from a flier produced by CHARM that is going up around our neighborhood. A lengthier press release has also been distributed. CHARM can be contacted at 347-365-1763 [email protected]


Another Homeless Shelter Disaster at the Bedford-Atlantic Armory
The city is closing the only Homeless Intake Center in Manhattan and moving this intake function FOR THE WHOLE CITY to the Bedford-Atlantic Shelter in Brooklyn.
Your chance to protest this is now.
There will be a demonstration & press conference on the steps of City Hall in Manhattan this Thursday (May 8th) at 1pm.

The press conference is sponsored by elected officials, community leaders, and non-profit organizations who are strongly opposed to the city’s plan to require homeless men from Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx to come to the already over stretched shelter at Bedford & Atlantic in Brooklyn.

This is a disservice both to the homeless and to our community. How can the already badly run center at Bedford & Atlantic cope with this new function? How can our community cope with this change? Why should Brooklyn be the intake center for all five boroughs when 60% of the homeless men are in Manhattan?

Add your support to the elected officials & others who oppose this disastrous plan by assembling at the security booth at the Park Row entrance to City Hall in Manhattan at 12:45pm on Thursday May 8th