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BRONX TIMES REPORTER, APRIL 1-7, 2022 BXR
A planned White Plains Road homeless shelter has been nixed by the city. Photo | Adrian Childress
announced for CB11. Westhab will be the
nonprofi t that will provide services for 140
single adult homeless men at 2028 White
Plains Road, number three. Questions
were asked that were put off with DHS saying
they would get back with answers.
After the CB11 Housing Committee
meeting, CB11 held an in-person public
hearing where people vented their frustrations
with the White Plains Road shelter.
CB 11 Chair Al D’Angelo stated that
he, the vice chair and district manager decided
to wait until the new year to contact
the new mayor.
Feb. 8 The Pelham Parkway Neighborhood
Association held its monthly meeting
where Councilwoman Marjorie Velázquez
was the guest, who encouraged
community members to speak out against
the third shelter as in the article’s last
paragraph.
Here is what was not in the article or
known about what went on concerning the
shelter.
In speaking with CB11 chair D’Angelo,
he told me that he had reached out to new
Mayor Eric Adams offi ce three times in
January 2022 getting no response from his
offi ce.
At his Jan. 30, 2022 press conference
at Jacobi Hospital, Mayor Adams was
asked a question by me about fair share,
the attempted dumping of 540-single adult
homeless men into CB11 by former Mayor
de Blasio, and what he would do. Mayor
Adams said that he would check with DHS
on the matter.
On Feb. 14, a community organized
task force (outside of the community
board) met for the fi rst time where evidence
of homeless people brought to one
of the many CB11 hospitals from other
boards and boroughs were being processed
into the DHS system using the hospital
address they were brought to in CB11
as the address of the homeless person, as
per the 16-page DHS form.
At the Feb. 28 meeting of the task force
fi gures were produced whereas the implied
number of single homeless men by
DHS included over 4,000 homeless women.
There was a plan of action to picket the
2028 White Plains Road shelter site, blocking
all access to the site to be fi nalized at
the March 14 meeting, with a new letter of
objection to the proposed shelter.
At the Monday March 14 meeting of
the task force, Bronx Borough President
Vanessa Gibson and City Council members
Marjorie Velázquez and Oswald Feliz
were in attendance. Gibson announced
that the shelter at 2028 White Plain Road
was not going any further and that CB11
would be getting a letter from DHS to say
so. Gibson asked the task force to wait until
CB11 received offi cial notice from DHS
before saying anything about the shelter
plans being halted.
The task force will continue to meet, because
we know that the number of homeless
people DHS told CB11 — as the board’s
homeless responsibility — was wrong,
and included hundreds of homeless people
who were brought to any of CB11’s hospitals.
The task force also wants, if a second
shelter is needed at Poplar Street, that it
be a family shelter, not a second 200-bed
single men’s shelter. We want to monitor
DHS, and have DHS give the task force
real answers, and not hear, “We will have
to get back to you” as they told CB11.
Robert Press,
Community organized task force chair
letters & comments
To the Editor,
Your article “DSS pulls plans for White
Plains Road ‘bingo hall’ shelter,” leaves
out much of what happened to stop the proposed
White Plains Road men’s shelter.
Here is what was known.
In early October 2021, Community
Board 11 was notifi ed of a proposal for a
third single-adult men’s homeless shelter
at 2028 White Plains Road for 140 homeless
men. At the Oct. 28, 2021 full community
board meeting under New Business, “Discussion
took place regarding the proposed
shelter on White Plains Road” is noted.
At the Jan. 11, 2022 CB11 Housing Committee
meeting gallery session, many residents
in attendance had questions about
the proposed single-adult men’s homeless
shelter at 2028 White Plains Road. It was
stated that there will be a future meeting
on the matter.
At the Jan. 20, 2022 CB11 Leadership
Committee meeting Al. D’Angelo made a
motion, seconded by Yahay Obeid, to send
written questions to the Department of
Homeless Services (DHS) in advance of the
February 2022 Housing Committee meeting
and CB11 public hearing, which will
also be shared with the board’s elected offi
cials, in which the elected offi cials will
be strongly encouraged to attend the public
hearing.
Feb. 3, 2022 was the CB11 Virtual Housing
Committee meeting with Erin Drinkwater
(DHS) who provided a presentation
of the intake process and other relevant
information regarding the city’s homeless
shelter system, stating that there were
zero shelter beds available for individuals
whose last known address was in CB11.
She added that there were three shelters
There’s more to the
White Plains Road
shelter story
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