Big Turnout for Rally Against Homeless Intake Center

Montrose Morris was on the scene for last night’s rally against the homeless intake center in Crown Heights and filed this report.

The gym at St.Peter Claver School was full of people for last night’s rally against the homeless intake center plan for the Bedford Atlantic Armory. The rally was organized by CHRM (Crown Heights Revitalization Movement) and local elected officials, and was run by community activist Mark Griffiths, CHRM member, and candidate for city council representing Crown Heights and Bed Stuy. Several speakers outlined the history of the shelter, Bloomberg’s plan for bringing the intake center to Central Brooklyn, and the steps taken by a concerned Crown Heights community to stop it.

The opposition to the city’s plans is a coalition of black, white, Asian, Latin, young, and old, community members, as well as clergy, politicians, and advocates and workers with the homeless. It was announced that local elected officials, including City Council Members Letitia James and Bill deBlasio, Assemblyman Karim Camara, State Senator Eric Adams and others have retained the high power, well connected law firm of Gibson Dunn, with the lead lawyer on the case being Jim Walden, a Brooklyn resident, backed up by former deputy mayor, and firm partner Randy Mastrow. Randy seems to have come back to the Light from the Dark Side days as a Giuliani powerbroker, and the firm is taking the case pro bono. It is hoped that the seriousness of the community in fighting this will convince the city to rethink a seriously flawed plan.

In addition to hearing attorney Jim Walden speak about legal strategies, we also were fired up by an impassioned speech by Letitia James…

…which brought the audience out of their seats shouting and clapping. Her assertion that it’s all about politics was echoed by Marty Markowitz, who was incensed that he never even got a phone call from the Mayor’s office advising him that the intake center was coming to Brooklyn. He called the plan for the center irrational and ridiculous and was personally offended that mayor was exercising what Marty called a philosophy of social pioneering in Crown Heights. This was further articulated by Bill deBlasio, who announced that the elected officials in the Manhattan Bellevue Center area were among the first to announce support for the Brooklyn efforts to block the center. Representatives of other local politicians: Ed Towns, Annette Robinson and mayoral candidate Bill Thompson also spoke in support of the community. Conspicuous in his absence was City Councilman Al Vann, who is supposed to represent most of the the Bed Stuy and Crown Heights community affected by the center. Tish James, who has spent more political time on this issue than anyone, represents only two blocks of Crown Heights, over near the Armory. Vann is supposed to represent all of the rest of us, and has done nothing.

The evening ended with statements from homeowners who live near the shelter, who spoke of horrendous conditions within the Armory shelter, as well as seeing the doors open at 7AM, with the homeless men spilling out into the street with no where to go, and no place to go relieve themselves, except in the streets, and in people’s front yards. They expressed their disgust at the smells and filth, and the degradation of human beings who are forced to act this way. A representative of the Coalition for the Homeless also told of being in the Armory just today, where he could see that the construction and retrofit of the shelter into an intake center was 90% complete, something that was not slated to take place until New York State’s process of investigation and inquiry was done. New York has not placed their seal of approval on the project yet, something that the law requires. The city was not supposed to go ahead like this was a done deal, but they did anyway, in spite of the massive vocal and written opposition to the project. The Coalition representative also made clear that his organization is firmly against having the intake center for all of the city’s homeless relocated to Brooklyn. The rally ended with renewed calls to action, getting the word out to everyone, and plans for more rallies, petitions, and calls to the Mayor. A coalition of all of the communities involved is growing and more proactive and effective protests are in the works. If the city doesn’t reconsider, the lawsuit will follow.

CB8 Votes Against Re-Opening Homeless Shelter [Brownstoner]
City Reneging on Homeless Intake Center Promise? [Brownstoner]
Update on the Bedford Armory Homeless Saga [Brownstoner]
Homeless Intake Center Plan Provokes Broad Opposition [Brownstoner]
Photo by erlogan