Hundreds of people from the Gravesend community in Brooklyn turned out Wednesday to protest a planned homeless shelter in the neighborhood.
The city has proposed a shelter for single adult men near 25th Avenue and 86th Street. Community members and elected leaders say they have been left out of Mayor Eric Adams' planning for the 150-bed shelter — even though the city says it told the community last fall that it would likely open later this year.
What You Need To Know
- Hundreds of people from the Gravesend community in Brooklyn turned out Wednesday to protest a planned homeless shelter near 25th Avenue and 86th Street
- Community members and elected leaders say they have been left out of Mayor Eric Adams' planning for the 150-bed shelter
- The protest comes weeks after a similar demonstration at which police arrested City Councilmember Susan Zhuang for allegedly biting a member of the NYPD
"After 4,000 people marched at City Hall, after all the protests, that still, city government has not responded,” Democratic Assemblyman William Colton, whose district includes Gravesend, said at the protest.
“What they’re doing now is warehousing individuals," Staten Island and Brooklyn Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis added. "They are compounding the problem."
Wednesday’s protest came several weeks after a similar demonstration held over the shelter, at which police arrested City Councilmember Susan Zhuang for allegedly biting a member of the NYPD.
Zhuang denied any wrongdoing, and says she remains committed to blocking the shelter.
“Protect our community. Fight for our community,” Zhuang said at Wednesday’s rally. “Stop this dangerous homeless shelter next to our schools.”
The demonstration also comes as the city has extended its 60-day shelter stay limit for migrant families to additional shelters, which previously only applied to migrant families staying in large shelters run by the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
“I don’t call them eviction notices. I call them time limits,” Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom said at a press briefing Tuesday. “And so that we’re telling people that they have 60 days, and that they can see if there’s other places, other family members that they need to go to.”
The head of the New York Immigration Coalition spoke out against the policy on NY1’s Inside City Hall Tuesday.
“The mayor even said this. There’s significantly less people in the city’s care, and the number continues to drop,” president and CEO Murad Awawdeh said. "The number continues to drop also because they’re pushing people into the street, and if they continue on this pathway, we're going to start having more families with small children living in the street.”
Migrant families do have the option to reapply for new shelter stays, but there is no guarantee that they will be able to remain in their current shelter — or any shelter.
NY1 has reached out to City Hall for comment about the latest demonstration against the proposed homeless shelter in Gravesend, and the ongoing demands to change the location.
The city has previously said it is committed to building what would be the first of its kind homeless shelter in the neighborhood, that would come equipped with security guards and cameras.