May 31–June 6, 2019 Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 AWP 3
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‘We are not OK with this’
Park Slope residents create petition to protest
two family shelters planned for the neighborhood
Google
Locals created a petition to protest two homeless shelters planned for
Fourth Avenue.
the two buildings — originally
intended as market-rate rentals
— would have attracted
the same amount of people
under their original use, only
wealthier.
And the proposed Fourth
Avenue shelters are not the
largest in Brooklyn, according
to a spokeswoman for the Department
of Social Services,
who noted that Win operates
two neighboring shelters that
serve a combined 412 families
elsewhere in the borough.
Kapoor goes on to claim via
the petition that Fourth Avenue
between Prospect Avenue
and Ninth Street has become
a dumping ground for
the city’s social and environmental
problems, and is already
host to a Department of
Sanitation garage and wastetransfer
station, the Department
of Transportation’s noxious
Hamilton Avenue asphalt
plant, and the Gowanus Parole
Center, making the addition
of two massive shelters
unbearable.
None of those facilities,
however, are actually located
on Fourth Avenue; both the
sanitation garage and parole
center are located on Second
Avenue, while the asphalt plant
and waste-transfer station are
on Hamilton Avenue.
One thing omitted from
the petition are concerns over
the shelter’s effects on nearby
property values, but Kapoor
— a condo owner — admitted
that issue remains a source of
worry for her, and her neighbors,
despite claims Bray made
at the May 1st meeting that
shelters do not affect the value
of neighboring homes.
“Even though in the town
hall they said historically
there’s no data that shows
property values aren’t effected
by shelters, the fact is there’s
very little date on this type
of huge… we’re not talking
about one shelter, we’re talking
about two huge shelters
near our properties,” Kapoor
said. “Theres no doubt this
will have a negative impact
on the property value.”
Kapoor is a women’s rights
activist and founder of Sayfty,
an advocacy group that promotes
programs and initiatives
that protect women against domestic
violence and rape. She
advocating against the shelters,
despite its intended purpose
of serving mostly women
and children, claiming restrictions
that prevent families
from stay more than a
year will prevent them from
making meaningful connections
within the community,
and from getting the services
they need.
“I’m all for helping and empowering
women, but I don’t
see this as a way of empowering
women and families,” she
said. “The city hasn’t given
us enough reason and information
on how they’re helping
them out.”
The petition’s claim that
shelter residents get the boot
after one year is not true, according
to a spokeswoman for
the Department of Social Services,
who said that all homeless
New Yorkers have the
right to shelter for as long as
they need it.
The city will host a public
contract hearing on June 27,
where the Mayor’s Office of
Contract Services will share a
final draft version of the city’s
agreement with the developer
before it’s signed.
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By Colin Mixson
Brooklyn Paper
More than 200 people have
signed a petition protesting
the city’s plan to open homeless
shelters at two neighboring
Park Slope developments,
hoping to rally enough community
opposition to persuade
the city to call off the shelter
plan before finalizing its
agreement with the properties’
owner.
“The whole idea is to be able
to rally enough people to say
we are not OKwith this decision
and that we should reconsider
it,” said Shruti Kapoor,
who published the petition on
Change.org Sunday on behalf
of residents in her Fourth Avenue
condominium, who have
banded together as the Fourth
Avenue Committee.
The city announced its plan
earlier this month to open shelters
in the fall at neighboring
properties being built at 535
and 555 Fourth Ave., which
would feature a combined 253
units, and offer childcare services,
along with programs
designed to help New Yorkers
— predominantly women
and children — find permanent
housing.
At a public meeting hosted
by Park Slope Councilman
Brad Lander on May 1, the
legislator told locals that the
city had exceeded its commitment
to provide 30-days notice
of shelter openings by several
months.
But many locals said they
were caught off guard by the
shelter announcement, and the
audience repeatedly booed
presenters, including Jackie
Bray, first deputy commissioner
at the Department of
Homeless Services, and former
City Council Speaker
Christine Quinn, who heads
up the non-profit organization
that will operate the shelters,
called Win.
The petition states locals
have serious concerns about
the density of the proposed
shelters, although Lander
noted earlier this month that
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