City Reneging on Homeless Intake Center Promise?
It’s looking like the city may be backing out of a promise to spread the burden of caring for the city’s homeless population by opening a Manhattan-based intake center to complement the one it’s dumping on Crown Heights. Here’s what DHS Commissioner Robert Hess said last year on the topic: We’ve received considerable feedback regarding…
It’s looking like the city may be backing out of a promise to spread the burden of caring for the city’s homeless population by opening a Manhattan-based intake center to complement the one it’s dumping on Crown Heights. Here’s what DHS Commissioner Robert Hess said last year on the topic:
We’ve received considerable feedback regarding our plans to move men’s intake from its current location at 30th Street in Manhattan to the Bedford Atlantic Armory in Brooklyn, when the current site closes. And based on that input, we have developed a new plan that will allow us to have in place two intake sites – one site in Manhattan, and a second site in Brooklyn at the Bed-Atlantic Armory. We will ensure that there is a new intake site in Manhattan by the time DHS exits 30th Street facility.
The only problem is that the city’s 2010 budget does not reflect any plans for a new Manhattan center, suggesting that the Bedford Armory will the single point of entry into the shelter system for the male homeless population in the five boroughs. In addition to being an unfair burden on the community, it also neglects the reality that the majority of homeless men are in Manhattan. To protest this, Council Members Letitia James and Bill De Blasio along with a number of other elected officials and community groups are holding a rally on the steps of City Hall on Sunday at 3 p.m. Meanwhile, some homeless folks are shacking up at a recently developed luxury condo building in the neighborhood. Not too shabby.
Update on the Bedford Armory Homeless Saga [Brownstoner]
Shelter Woes Spread From Crown Heights to Bed Stuy [Brownstoner]
Homeless Intake Center Plan Provokes Broad Opposition [Brownstoner]
Pols Gather to Pan Crown Heights Homeless Plan [Brownstoner]
Crown Heights Rally: Don’t Dump On Us! [Brownstoner]
“almost 25 years of unrelenting gentrication have barely had an impact in certain areas, such as Amsterdam Avenue.”
Huh?? Most of it is pretty gentrified now. I go to Church on the UWS with a lot of older folks who tell horror stories about how bad it was 20+ years ago.
Not trying to rile anyone up, but Manhattan has provided the lion’s share of services for the homeless and underhoused (that’s for you Rob), as well as SROs, intake, hospitals, rehabs, etc. Hypervigilent UES nimby’s have managed to ensure that most of this happens on the west side, with the result that after almost 25 years of unrelenting gentrication have barely had an impact in certain areas, such as Amsterdam Avenue. Over time, the neighborhood has reblended and considering the wealth disparity we get along pretty well. I’d even venture to say, cautiously, that it’s finally become a place again where people know and look out for each other and not just themselves.
“The What sounds pretty horny today. Be careful out there folks. ”
Raging Hard-ON!!!!!!
The What (Please bend over, this wont hurt me at all..)
Someday this war is gonna end…
The What sounds pretty horny today. Be careful out there folks.
Brownstoner:
Now here’s a building that can be converted to residential, educational, cultural, and recreational uses. Crown Heights/Bedford Stuyvesant residents, put together a plan and shop it around!
Check out the Grant Square elevations: they already look residential. (There’s an old hospital on upper Central Park West, converted to condominiums, that looks very much like this.)
That great big hall? Turn it into a combination school and community facility.
If need be, hollow out some part of the building and go taller if you want extra space and density (a trade-off you may be willing to make).
Bet there are some charter schools out there looking for digs; and maybe some federal “stimulus” money for planning and capital costs.
As for the intake center, I still say the Police Academy on East 21st Street is the place to go. The City just announced the start of its new academy in Queens, leaving this big, centrally-located, convenient-to-Bellevue facility available in the next few years. (And won’t its Gramercy Park neighbors be only too delighted to assume their fair share of social services?)
Attack the City on two fronts by gathering community support and potential funding sources for an alternative scheme and by identifying other logical sites for the center (to make City Councilmen squawk, not just your own!).
Nostalgic on Park Avenue
Just want to point out that the issue with the intake center is not just a Crown Heights/Prospect Heights issue.
It affects Bedford-Stuyvesant as well, particularly the business owners in the newly formed business improvement district along Fulton and Nostrand. The closest subway trains to the armory are the A and C trains on Franklin and Nostrand in Bed-Stuy. So for the vast majority of these men, their first destination will be the streets of Bedford-Stuyvesant.
What’s the point of giving business owners the illusion of revitalization and grandeur (which they have to pay for in the form of increased taxes) if they are going to move forward with the intake center? One step forward. Two steps back.
Not to mention that even though the center is technically on the Crown Heights side of the Atlantic, it is still only on the border. And I’m sure that the men know how to walk in both directions.
Yes, Crown Heights has 5 times the average number of social service beds compared to other locales; Bed-Stuy’s share is twice the average. Still an exorbitant amount.
Hopefully Bed-Stuy will begin to mobilize just as thoroughly as Crown Heights has to fight this plan.
Benson,
The condo/homeless shelter is in our backyard as well.
Although the condo/homeless shelter will be used to house families, it still proves our case that the city is using Crown Heights to remedy the homeless problems in the city.
Once again, Crown Heights has gone above and beyond their fair share; its time to spread the burden.
benson- do you never read? We’re talking getting families off the street. Compare that to what they are trying to do with the Bedford shelter. Tough sh*t for them- they should be in Crown Heights or Bed-stuy where the city tries to stick everything. How about the neighbors here who are run roughshod over? The Bedford shelter houses single men who are drug addicts, sex offenders , mentally ill or just plain down on their luck. Obviously you think its preferable to let a family with kids stay on the street than let them live in a nice place even temporarily.
Bxgrl;
Please convince the neighbors of this condo about the benefits to society of turning it into a homeless shalter. They are opposed to it, and say so in the Daily News article.
Morally superior? Moi? Was it I who tried to pre-emptively dismiss others’ objections to the condo/homeless shalter as just the usual howls of the cold-hearted?