The eviction of a women's center in Bayside, Queens, may not come easy. The facility is on property controlled by the Fire Department, and now the FDNY says it needs the space.
As NY1 Queens Reporter Gigi Stone explains in the following story, the women don't plan to leave without a fight.
Some women have been relying on group therapy sessions here for years, one of the many services offered by the Queens Women's Center. Until Tuesday, that is, when the center is slated to be evicted from its building at Fort Totten.
"We would have no other place to go, and this is such a wonderful place for us," Renee Weinhouse said Monday.
Shay Kamay added, "I can't imagine all these women not having a place to come to. That would be very sad."
The city has been in the process of taking over Fort Totten from the federal government. In 1996, the city allowed a number of non-profit groups to move in to maintain the property.
Most of the non-profits are leasing land from the Parks Department, which is allowing them to stay. But the Queens Women's Center is on land controlled by the FDNY, which wants to build a training facility there.
The Fire Department tells NY1 it has to create a training facility under its deal with the U.S. Army, and it has been warning the Queens Women's Center this day would come.
"I'm very angry, and I feel that - considering we are the only full-service women's center in New York City - there has to be some sort of attitude that women's needs are not important," the center's director, Ann Jawin, said Monday.
And these women say they're not leaving.
"I will not move because I feel we are entitled to it in every way," said Jawin.
The center is visited by up to 150 women a week, and it offers a variety of programs. They include legal assistance, computer classes, job training, and psychological counseling.
Dina Katehis says it has helped her through spousal abuse, divorce, post-September 11 trauma, and to learn English.
"It helps me so much with everything. The support is wonderful," said Katehis.
And according to staff therapist Barbara Kaplan, "There aren't services like that anywhere in the borough of Queens, there aren't women's centers that I know of, and there aren't support centers for women in need that don't have the finances."
So these women refuse to budge, and they're ready for a showdown if necessary.
- Gigi Stone
As NY1 Queens Reporter Gigi Stone explains in the following story, the women don't plan to leave without a fight.
Some women have been relying on group therapy sessions here for years, one of the many services offered by the Queens Women's Center. Until Tuesday, that is, when the center is slated to be evicted from its building at Fort Totten.
"We would have no other place to go, and this is such a wonderful place for us," Renee Weinhouse said Monday.
Shay Kamay added, "I can't imagine all these women not having a place to come to. That would be very sad."
The city has been in the process of taking over Fort Totten from the federal government. In 1996, the city allowed a number of non-profit groups to move in to maintain the property.
Most of the non-profits are leasing land from the Parks Department, which is allowing them to stay. But the Queens Women's Center is on land controlled by the FDNY, which wants to build a training facility there.
The Fire Department tells NY1 it has to create a training facility under its deal with the U.S. Army, and it has been warning the Queens Women's Center this day would come.
"I'm very angry, and I feel that - considering we are the only full-service women's center in New York City - there has to be some sort of attitude that women's needs are not important," the center's director, Ann Jawin, said Monday.
And these women say they're not leaving.
"I will not move because I feel we are entitled to it in every way," said Jawin.
The center is visited by up to 150 women a week, and it offers a variety of programs. They include legal assistance, computer classes, job training, and psychological counseling.
Dina Katehis says it has helped her through spousal abuse, divorce, post-September 11 trauma, and to learn English.
"It helps me so much with everything. The support is wonderful," said Katehis.
And according to staff therapist Barbara Kaplan, "There aren't services like that anywhere in the borough of Queens, there aren't women's centers that I know of, and there aren't support centers for women in need that don't have the finances."
So these women refuse to budge, and they're ready for a showdown if necessary.
- Gigi Stone