Fight the growth of the homeless shelter

Direct link: http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/05/bedstuy_intake.php


NY Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/nyregion/thecity/18disp.html

The shelter at Bedford-Atlantic has long had a reputation among the homeless for violence and drugs, according to Mr. Ramos and others. Some of the homeless men outside the Bellevue shelter said that they would rather sleep on the street than go there.

I have to say I'm really surprised by the lack of response to this issue. Do people think it's just not a big deal? Are folks already just resigned to it happening? Or do people just not know what to do?

I live a block away from the armory, and I and a lot of my neighbors are still really concerned about this. Many of us have already written our representatives, and we're trying to organize as a block, but a lot of us have been hoping that there would be some larger organized response to the proposed relocation of the intake unit. At first there were a lot of articles and statements from politicians, and we saw some flyers, but now it's gotten pretty quiet. I would have thought there'd be flyers on every lamp-post and in every mailbox by now, articles in the neighborhood papers, rallies, etc. Does anybody know if anything's going on? I'm going to keep working to organize my block, but it seems like we're going to need something bigger if we hope to change the city's decision.