City Planning Approves FAC Project at 575 5th Ave

lostinbrooklyn, you wrote:

“If that’s the type of person living near the proposed FAC facility, then he/she are the reason folks are going to move away from the area, not the supportive/affordable housing development.”

I don’t live in Park Slope. But I do live near a facility similar to the one coming to Fifth Avenue.

After the facility is operational, the only people who will praise its presence are those who live nowhere near it.

It’s only goofy people like you who can say the mentally ill, the AIDS-infected IV-drug users and the irresponsible poor make better neighbors than average people with everyday problems.

YOu can deny reality if you want. But unless the people in that building never venture out, you can be sure their presence will surface in undesirable ways.

The new structure will house people on the following basis:

“the composition of the units: 24 are slotted for formerly homeless people living with mental illness, 5 for formerly homeless individuals living with HIV/AIDS, and 20 for low-income community residents.”

Twenty-four units for people whose mental illness was so severe they were reduced to homelessness. Yeah. The people in those 24 units will be a great asset to the neighborhood.

Their presence will increase the cost of social services in the area, and lead to regular calls to the polic precinct. It is a fact of life with these facilities.

Five units for ex-homeless people with AIDS. Great. Are they IV-drug users? That should add a new dimension to commerce in the neighborhood.

Twenty units for low-income residents. Exactly what does that mean? Single mothers with uncontrollable kids?

I live near a building that had been similarly used — on Avenue H and E. 12th street.

Here’s what it meant. Hookers on the corner in a residential neighborhood. Hookers, I will add, that looked sick. Drug dealing, noise complaints. Minor property crime and constant concerns about the safety of children walking past. These were not idle or unsubstantiated worries. Kids were accosted.

The police were not a great help. They were reluctant to respond to the daily complaints about activities around the building.

Fortunately, the building is now vacant, after a few years of legal wrangling. Homeowners on the same block are thrilled that their worthless neighbors have been driven out. It is hoped that a developer will convert the building into condos.

It won’t take long before people living near this 5th Ave facility will become resentful and angry about their troublesome neighbors. The idealism will disappear and a movement to shutdown the facility will begin. In fact, given the initial opposition, I’d say the movement has already started.

In any case, it’s beyond satire to think that a neighborhood needs a fair share of mentally-disabled, AIDS-infected IV-drug users and irresponsible mothers to earn its merit badge for “diversity”.

Fifth Avenue is in the middle of a recovery from years of problems. But rather than let the recovery continue on its upward path, benefiting the long-term residents who stuck it out during the tough times, the city has other ideas. It has decided to knock the neighborhood back a few years by re-introducing the old problems. Bring back some drug users, increasse the need for social services, give the cops more to do and give the neighbors more to complain about. Put parents on edge about the safety of their kids.

Here’s a plan. Build facilities at Floyd Bennett Field for all the people in the city who cannot care for themselves. There’s thousands of acres of unused and uninhabited land that would meet all the needs of the people who are headed for Fifth Avenue.

I’d much rather live near (and walk past) a house full of crazy people than a parking lot.

I object because it’s not going to be located in my back yard.

It’s the most awesome thing ever. Hope they open up like ten more.