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COURIER L 6 IFE, JAN. 29-FEB. 4, 2021
Getting heated
Locals blast proposed Brighton Beach
homeless shelter in contentious meeting
BY ROSE ADAMS
A virtual public meeting
about a proposed
Brighton Beach homeless
shelter quickly spiraled
into vitriolic chaos
as hundreds of attendees
took to the chat box to denounce
the project.
More than 10 participants
got booted from the
450-person meeting and
dozens more were muted
for spewing hate about
the homeless men who
will likely move into the
170-bed shelter coming to
100 Neptune Ave.
A new men’s homeless shelter is set to open at 100 Neptune
Ave. Google Maps
“I have seen the condition of their
living, which is not appropriate for
middle class sic, and I was wondering
what does it mean for these people to
go back to work, and they prefer to live
off the government on handouts and
get public assistance?” said a man who
identifi ed himself only as Joseph, who
was soon kicked off the call.
The public meeting, hosted by Community
Board 13, meant to give locals
the opportunity to ask questions about
the homeless shelter, which is set to be
operational by the end of 2021. The shelter
is one of the 90 community-based
shelters that the city aims to build by the
end of the year to combat homelessness.
Though the meeting was purely informational
— since the Department of
Homeless Services does not need community
approval to build the facility —
most attendees voiced their opposition
to the new project. One common concern
was the site’s potential for contamination
after serving for years as
a garage and auto body shop.
Though the city has already committed
to conducting an Environmental Impact
Statement of the site before moving
its plans forward, local environmentalist
Ida Sanoff argued that remediation
comes with a hefty price tag.
“How do you justify spending hundreds
of thousands of dollars of taxpayer
money that should be spent on
the homeless on cleaning up a brownfi
eld instead of using a green site, which
would be a lot cheaper?” she asked.
Department of Homeless Services
rep Matt Bodren responded that the developer
would pay for remediation, not
the city. Borden did not say who the
developer was for the Neptune Avenue
property, and DHS did not respond to
multiple requests for clarifi cation.
Other attendees called into question
the shelter’s service provider, CORE
Services Group, pointing to the Brooklyn
based nonprofi t’s more than 300 violations
in 2019. A majority of those violations
came from CORE’s cluster sites
— temporary apartment units in privately
owned buildings — which CORE
closed down in October 2020. In November,
CORE had 60 open violations across
its 17 locations in shelters and hotels.
Many also worried that the shelter’s
residents would loiter around the neighborhood.
Though CORE spox Gordon
Jackson argued that each shelter client
has an individualized schedule that
keeps them busy, local Councilman
Chaim Deutsch said he’s heard otherwise
— citing a recent visit to a CORE
shelter in which one resident allegedly
complained he had no schedule.
“The resident told me, he says, ‘Employment
services? I don’t have any of
that,'” said Deutsch, who has repeatedly
voiced opposition to the shelter. “He told
me that there’s not a lot of activities.”
Only one caller spoke in favor of the
shelter, while most others decried the
shelter’s potential for crime. Locals
worried that the shelter’s residents
could pose a threat to students at PS
771 and Bay Academy, located a couple
blocks away, and that they could deface
local Holocaust monuments.
Representatives from CORE and
DHS became increasingly frustrated
with the comments, and one called the
claims “slanderous.”
“Folks that are living in the site are
just individuals that are in between
being housed, and at the end of the day,
they’re trying to get back up on their
feet,” said Borden with DHS. “I think
a lot of times people make assumptions
regarding crime and criminality
and the kinds of concerns folks talked
about in this call … and I think that’s
quite slanderous to these folks.”
The two lawmakers on the call, Assemblyman
Steven Cymbrowitz and
Councilman Deutsch, said they opposed
the plan because they believe the city
should install permanent housing with
social services, rather than shelters.
“Our city’s homeless deserve better,
as does our community,” Cymbrowitz
said.
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