CB 12, residents oppose 2 homeless shelters
Northwest Bronx longtime activist, Heidi Hynes, passes at 51
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, D BTR ECEMBER 6-12, 2019 3
BY JASON COHEN
A woman who impacted the borough
for many years passed away
right before Thanksgiving.
On Sunday, November 24, Bedford
Park resident and longtime activist
Heidi Hynes lost her battle to cancer
at the age of 51. Hynes was born
in Kansas City, MO, but spent most of
her life in the Bronx.
Hynes graduated from Fordham’s
Bronx campus in 1990. She was an
organizer at the Northwest Bronx
Community and Clergy Coalition
and later became a board member as
well.
Sandra Lobo, the executive director
of NWBCCC, refl ected on her
more than 20 years of working with
Hynes.
“Heidi was a dynamic, joyful and
passionate fi ghter that cared deeply
about issues of peace and justice and
was a great advocate around health
issues in the Bronx through a social
determinants of health framework,
meaning that health was not just
linked to personal choice, but larger
systemic issues including quality of
affordable housing, access to fresh
fruits and vegetables, presence of violence,
etc.,” Lobo said.
She recalled the time when Hynes
was selected to be a part of a small
group of people to meet with Ben Ber-
nacke, chairman of the Federal Reserve.
She addressed him passionately
advocating for the chairman to
take responsibility for the predatory
loans made to families during
the housing crisis and not bail out
big banks. In that meeting, Hynes
pounded on the table while her voice
cracked sharing the impact that
those bad loans had on communities
like the Bronx.
“Many of us get disillusioned
by how negative the world seems at
times, even overwhelmed by how our
work feels insuffi cient by the magnitude
of inequality in the world,” Lobo
said. “Heidi was one of those leaders
that was always optimistic and joyful
and inspired us to continue to affi rm
that another world is possible despite
the challenges we face.”
In 1997, she became executive director
at the Mary Mitchell Family
and Youth Center in Crotona at 2007
Mapes Avenue.
“She was the kind of person who
always had a smile on her face,” said
Lurgen Guzman, program director at
the Mary Mitchell Center. “She was
involved in a lot of different activities.
She was really concerned about
the kids.”
Guzman was quite emotional
when talking about her friend. They
worked together for 22 years and
it will be hard to fi ll her shoes, she
said.
“Basically Mary Mitchell was her
home,” she said.
Guzman told the Bronx Times,
Hynes left the center in September
2018 with an initial plan to return.
After surgery and radiation, everyone
hoped she would get better.
“She just got really sick a month
ago,” she said. “We all thought she
was going to come back. I’m still not
ready. It’s a tragedy for the center.”
Hynes is survived by her husband
Brian and daughter Frieda, her parents
Frank and Michelle Schloegel
back in her native Kansas City, siblings
Theresa and Frankie and a several
nieces and nephews.
Heidi Hynes with kids at the Mary Mitchell Center
Photo Courtesy Mary Mitchell After School Program
BY JASON COHEN
Right before Thanksgiving, a
bombshell dropped on social media,
announcing two shelters were coming
to Eastchester.
Fair to say, the community did not
take the news well. Hundreds of residents
expressed their displeasure on
Facebook.
George Torres, the district manager
of Community Board 12, told the
Bronx Times he is opposed to more
shelters in CB 12.
Torres said around Thursday, November
21, residents found fl yers on
their doorsteps saying there was going
to be a men’s shelter at 3240 Grace Avenue
in 2020 and a women’s shelter at
1591 E. 233rd Street in 2021.
The women’s shelter is going to be
run by the Bronx Parent’s Housing
Network and is at the site of the former
Imperial Milk factory and store.
Arianna Fishman, a spokesman for
the NYC Department of Homeless Services
addressed the rumors. She said
no fi nal determination has been made
with regard to the Grace Avenue site,
but confi rmed that a women’s shelter
is on its way.
“Homeless New Yorkers come from
every community across the fi ve boroughs,
so we need every community
to come together to address homelessness,”
Fishman said.
“This high-quality facility will offer
200 women experiencing homelessness
from the Bronx the opportunity
to be sheltered in their home borough,
closer to their support networks and
communities they called home as they
get back on their feet,” she added.
Torres feels like the community is
being blindsided by DHS.
He is all for providing housing, but
wondered why it isn’t going in other
communities. Furthermore, his district
has four hotels, which are used as
shelters already, he noted.
“As a community, we feel we are being
oversaturated by shelters,” Torres
stressed. “The community is very upset
about this.”
Upon receiving the fl yer, Torres
immediately contacted DHS and his
suspicions were confi rmed. He was relived
to hear that the men’s shelter is
not fi nalized, but could not believe another
shelter was coming to the neighborhood.
Even though DHS hedged on the
men’s shelter, the NYC Department of
Building’s website, shows plans were
fi led for 204 beds at 3240 Grace Avenue,
he said.
Torres found that Black Vets for Social
Justice applied to run the men’s
shelter, but its application before the
DOB is in ‘Disapproved Status’.
“The only agency I know of that
uses these types of sleeping accommodations
is DHS,” he explained.
According to Torres, the women’s
shelter site is fl awed. The old milk
plant is in an industrial zone and he
questioned whether the city is going to
allow an alternate use for the parcel.
He explained that under the current
zoning a hotel would have to be
built to allowa residential use.
Torres sent a letter to his board and
the community about the situation.
Among the many residents who oppose
the shelter is Lawrence Brown,
40, who lives four blocks away. He was
shocked when he saw the news on Facebook.
Brown questioned why shelters
don’t go in other neighborhoods.
“You can’t fi nd them in Country
Club or Pelham Bay,” he said. “They’re
always trying to put ones where you
have middle class minorities with rising
property values.”
The proposed site of a men’s homeless shelter in Eastchester.
Photo courtesy of Community Board 12 via Oasis