Friday, February 1, 2019

NYC’s Uneven Spread of Needed Homeless Shelters

One Homeless Shelter with Many Beds

New York City gets kudos for its services to the homeless. There are temporary emergency shelters operated by the City of New York and those managed by nonprofits. Apparently, the City’s homeless services are so exceptional that one male client of Pamoja House explained to this reporter some shelters in New Jersey release clients with their belongings and a one-way MetroCard. Truth or a joke, clients in family and adult homeless shelters hail from New York City neighborhoods, various States, and nations. Fast paced New Yorkers have big hearts. There are some neighborhoods inhabited by people with unusually big hearts because these neighborhoods get the bulk of homeless shelters and services.

Brooklyn Community Board #8 is one such ‘big-hearted’ community. It has 17 shelters. A shelter for homeless seniors was due to open at 1173 Bergen Street. Petitioners Rebirth of Bergen Street Block Association, Dean Street Block Association and 28 individuals went against NYC Department of Homeless Services, CORE SERVICES GROUP, INC, and CSN, LP (the owners of 1173 Bergen Street) to petition the Kings County Supreme Court to issue a temporary restraining order “to stay the City from opening a 104-bed men’s shelter. Justice Paul Wooten issued the order on March 24, 2017. The petitioners’ grounds were that “their neighborhood is already overburdened and saturated with homeless shelters and that DHS failed to conduct a Fair Share review in accordance with the Fair Share Criteria.” Justice Levine extended the order March 28, 2017, “until the Court has had an opportunity to review the Fair Share Analysis ("Analysis") submitted by the respondent City of New York ("City") as well as forthcoming legal papers.”

From a study of ACRIS, 1173 Bergen Street (Block 1214 Lot 76) has passed through several hands since 2006. Previous owners include 720 Livonia Ave Realty Corp., Bergen LLC, City of NY, Crown Heights North Historic District, Metro Co., and now the property of CSN Partners LP, since November 20, 2014. However, shortly after CSN Partners LP purchased it, the business got involved in flipping the property between itself and 1802304 Alberta, Ltd and Arnav Industries Inc. Profit Sharing Plan & Trust. For these businesses, it is a matter of dollars and cents; for the community it is a matter of home-“Home stable Home”. CSN Partners, LP is related to 20 other companies whose names begin with “CSN”.

While the two Kings County Supreme Court Justices see the validity of completing Fair Share Analysis, other quarters believe the community folks are callous to homeless people’s plight. After all, a shelter designated for seniors would be a relief to those aged 60 years or more. Male adult shelters can be hard for the 18 - 22 years of age cohort to exist in and same for the elderly in terms of verbal and physical threats of harm.

Adem Bunkeddeko, a North Crown Heights resident and Brooklyn Community Board 8 member, views the shelter controversy within the context of Mayor Bill De Blasio’s February 28, 2017 announcement of “the City Plan”. The City Plan is a homeless services plan. The Mayor intends to “open 90 shelters, while cutting the number of facilities by 45%; eliminating “cluster” apartments by 2021; and stop using commercial hotels by 2023.” Critics of City Plan contend it requires more details for its feasibility. As the old commercial tag line goes, some people ask, “Where’s the beef?” What cannot be disregarded is the cost to New York in keeping the homeless in commercial hotels. NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer issued DHS Commercial Hotel Summary, December 14, 2016 and DHS Commercial Hotel Update, April 17, 2017. The “Update” reveals:
·         Nearly 347,000 rooms were booked between November 1, 2016 and February 28, 2017
·         The cost for that period was $65.2 million.

“I strongly believe we need to build shelters. There are folks who need dedicated shelters to stabilize their lives. I view it as a social justice issue. On the other hand, Crown Heights is overloaded. I’m not sure whether Crown Heights is shouldering more than its fair share”, opines Adem Bunkeddeko” Regarding City Plan Bunkeddeko said ”The proposal, as currently presented, does not seem fair  nor transparent. There are 90 proposed shelters but the public has been informed about only five of them—three are in the Crown Heights area. One of the three is in operation in Prospect Heights. Without a full understanding of all 90 sites, it is unfair to go forward with the plan. The public needs to see the whole picture.”

It is a fact that Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan bear the load of homeless shelters. Queens and Staten Island go lightly. While the NYC Comptroller, John Liu issued Down and Out: How New York City Places Its Homeless Shelters, May 2013. This report used 2011 shelter data from the Department of Homeless Services which revealed:
·         Bronx had 148 homeless shelters, primarily sited in CB 2, CB 3, CB 4, CB 5, CB 6 and CB 12
·         Brooklyn had 127, primarily sited in CB 3, CB 8, CB 9, CB 14, CB 16, and CB 17
·         Manhattan had 74, primarily sited in CB 3, CB 10, and CB 11
·         Queens had 15, primarily sited in CB 12
·         Staten Island had 6, primarily sited in Community Board 1
·         In 2013, New York City had a homeless population of 51,000. By 2016, the population grew to 60,000 homeless people.

It is these concentrations of homeless shelters and services that disturb New Yorkers that reside in these community boards. The public questions how does the application of the eight Fair Share Criteria result in, for example, Brooklyn Community Board #3 having 25 shelters and #8 having 17 shelters but Brooklyn Community Boards #10 and #12 do not have shelters? Is it time that the Fair Share Criteria be revised? The last revision occurred in 1998 during Mayor Rudy Guiliani’s administration and Joseph Rose was City Planning’s Director.

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Monday, April 13, 2009

Central Brooklyn Ensures Due Process for Homeless Intake Center

Central Brooklyn elected, Brooklyn Community Board 8, Crow Hill Association, Crown Heights North Association and other community groups put their collective foot down, Sunday March 8, to ensure the City Department of Homeless Services complies with land use/fair share analysis, environmental reviews, and responding substantively to community concerns regarding converting the Bedford-Atlantic Shelter into the City’s homeless men’s intake center by retaining the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

The law firm’s retention was officially announced at a press conference on the steps of City Hall. In attendance included Council member Letitia James who made the announcement and introduced succeeding speakers; NYS Assembly member Hakeem Jeffries, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, Council member David Weprin and Jim Waldon, partner, and Randy Manstro of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. At issue is the logic of redirecting some 14,000 men to Brooklyn for intake assessment and shelter when 60% of NYC’s homeless men subsist in Manhattan. Many at the press conference believe the move to Brooklyn will put more homeless on the streets of Manhattan. Bedford-Atlantic Shelter’s notorious reputation as the worst DHS facility coupled with the recent closing of St. Mary’s Hospital and insufficient mental health services for the thousands of men requiring it appears to doom the move for failure. The current Manhattan-based men’s intake center is adjacent to the Bellevue Hospital Complex.

While Randy Manstro explained it is “premature to initiate litigation”, Assembly member Jeffries views the retaining as “the means to keep the Bloomberg administration within the law.” Borough President Markowitz quipped, “The move is not right for the homeless; not right for Brooklyn; and not right for Manhattan’s homeless.” Markowitz explained, “Manhattan’s male homeless population is larger than the combined numbers of the other four boroughs.”
Picture the Homeless Deborah Dickerson asked, “When are we going to give the homeless permanent housing? “ Dickerson believes it’s time to make feasible plans for permanent housing. Providing permanent housing rather than more temporary shelter that requires supportive services would bode well with Crown Heights Revitalization Movement Rachel Pratt’s observation that “northern Crown Heights has six times the median in social services in Brooklyn.”

Faye Moore, president of Social Service Employees Union, Local 371 brought attention to the plight of the some 200 employees at the Manhattan intake center who are scheduled to be laid off July 1, 2009. Rather than be laid off, these people are needed to continue managing and maintaining a homeless shelter. Moore stated, “The homeless don’t need to be wandering Brooklyn looking for help, it needs to be near them.”

Is the move part of a bigger plan? Could elitism be at play? The neighborhood wherein Bellevue shelter is located changed its socio-demographics in the last two decades. Rose Hill is now a more affluent community that had one developer want to build a hotel. Peter Katonah from St. Senator Eric Adams’ office questions whether “this is an attempt by the elite of Manhattan to rid itself of the homeless.”

Local 371 president concurs. Moore points to “80% of the City’s budget cuts are in social services.” Moore opines the cuts mean to destabilize the working families to a point where it’s not feasible for a middle-income to reside in NYC and two distinct classes will remain: the rich and the poor.

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Friday, August 15, 2008

Crown Hts Says No to Homeless Intake Center

Crown Heights residents with calm resolve said, “No,” to NYC Department of Homeless Services plan to relocate the men’s homeless intake center from Bellevue men’s shelter in Manhattan to the Atlantic Armory Shelter located at the corner of Atlantic and Bedford Avenues in Brooklyn. Rather than belligerently bash the messenger, whom was DHS Deputy Commissioner for Adult Services/Operations George Nashak, Brooklyn Community Board 8 held a productive special meeting August 12, 2008 at the Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation.

Approximately 125 people packed the room with many others lining the hallway. Nashak’s statements were brief because he “wanted to hear what the people had to say.” He explained that due to an increase in the lease, the city of New York would exit Bellevue by June 2009. It is the city’s intention to have a Manhattan and Brooklyn men’s homeless intake centers. Though the Manhattan site hasn’t been identified, by April 25, 2008, Mayor Bloomberg announced the proposed Brooklyn site. This announcement perplexes many who know at least 60% of the homeless report hailing from Manhattan.

Elected officials who raised objection to the plan included Letitia James (35 CD) and Albert Vann (36 CD) as did Community Board 8 chairman Robert Matthews. St. Senator Eric Adams recalled his time as an 88th precinct police officer that worked hard to control illegal activity caused by the shelter residents. Adams sees the relocation as “the highest level of disrespect of a community.” He intends to form a taskforce that seeks legal remedies for the matter. “With the number of level 1, 2, and 3 sex offenders in the Atlantic Armory Shelter, Office of Mental Retardation and Development Disabilities commissioner was supposed to be presented with this plan.” Adams intends “to meet with the OMRDD commissioner, speak with attorney Norman Siegel and if need be, mobilize the homeless for a visit to Gracie Mansion.”

The Atlantic Armory Shelter has an assessment center. At one time it had 1,000 beds; currently it holds 350. Should it become the intake center the beds will reduce to 230. Given the shelter’s practice of turning the men out on the street in the morning, the community is concerned about the hundreds of additional homeless men who will loiter, panhandle or seek menial jobs.

While there was no apparent DHS staff member recording the community’s concerns, residents made their opposition known. One single mother who lives in a nearby family shelter described the lack of services and referrals for those in the system. Community icon Elsie Richardson spoke glowingly of thirty years of grassroot work to improve housing, transportation and other infrastructure [in the face of bank redlining]. Richardson recalls “past St. Assemblyman Roger Green’s proposal to convert the armory into a recreational facility.” Nelcia Clarence and John Allgood stated how unfair the siting is to the community. Ms. Clarence went, as far as to say, “Heads should roll for dumping so much on Crown Heights.”

The dumping she refers to is the number of methadone clinics, mental health programs, food programs, drop-in centers, and residential facilities for special needs populations. Observing the objections to the community’s comments, Janet Collins, another Crown Heights resident, questioned Nashak’s purpose. Nelson said, “You’re not hearing us, although we live here and know what’s going on, you’re denying what we’re saying.”

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