Homeless people have slept on the steps of Old First Reformed Church in Park Slope for several years, a situation that, according to Patch, upset some in the neighborhood but has now resulted in the creation of a small overnight shelter in the house of worship. The shelter, which opened earlier this month, houses 10-12 men a night who are screened by CAMBA, the organization that runs the women’s shelter at the Park Slope Armory. The opening of the shelter is not without controversy, according to a couple of Slope residents interviewed by the Brooklyn Paper. One had this to say: “People don’t want the neighborhood to go down the drain again…You open something like that and there could be trouble.” The church’s reverend tells the paper that he didn’t run the idea of the shelter by the community before opening it because he knew it might not sit well with some and “we care more about what God thinks than what neighbors think.” Still, given that only a dozen men are sleeping there every night and the fact that homeless people already congregated outside the church, it’s tough to see how this could have a marked impact on the community.
A New Respite for Homeless at Old First [Patch]
Living on a Prayer! [Brooklyn Paper]
Photo via PropertyShark.


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