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BRONX TIMES REPORTER, MARCH 25-31, 2022 BXR
DSS pulls plans for White Plains Road ‘bingo hall’ shelter
BY ALIYA SCHNEIDER
Plans for a third proposed single men’s
shelter in the shelterless Community District
11 on White Plains Road have been
canceled, following public uproar both
over the shelter itself and the community
board’s handling of the proposal.
Community Board 11 was notified of
the planned 140-bed men’s shelter at 2028
White Plains Road in October, but purposefully
waited until a change in city administrations
to make a fuss, feeling complaints
would have fallen on “deaf ears”
under former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration,
board chair Albert D’Angelo
said in an interview with the Bronx Times.
While the Department of Social Services’
Department of Homeless Services
(DSS-DHS) didn’t provide a reason to CB11
— or to the Bronx Times — as to why they
pulled the proposal via a letter to D’Angelo
on Friday, the board chair believes it was
due to three reasons: the community response,
that this was the third men’s shelter
planned for the district and that there
is a planned school for three-year-olds
next door. There are no immediate plans
for an alternative site.
“We obviously made the right call,”
D’Angelo said. “But it showed with time. I
did question whether I was right or wrong,
because I didn’t know, maybe I should have
said it sooner, but I felt that we had the best
shot with this new administration. … I
took a lot of heat for it, but it worked out.”
The shelter, the former Bronxdale
Bingo Hall, would have sat across from
Brady Playground and Bronx Park East, a
3-minute walk to P.S. 105, with a planned
3-K early childhood education center right
next door. It would have been operated by
Westhab, a non-profit that was reported to
have had more than 850 911 calls in less
than two years at a Queens shelter it operates.
In a Feb. 3 CB11 Housing Committee
online meeting, Westhab spokesperson
Jim Coughlin disputed the accuracy of the
claim and said the shelter is doing well.
Combined with the proposed 200-bed
1346 Blondell Ave. shelter and 200-bed 2443
Poplar St. shelter — which was previously
planned for Stillwell Avenue — the three
new developments would have brought 540
beds for homeless men to Community District
11.
But what D’Angelo calls a group effort
to halt the shelter wasn’t embraced by all.
Roxanne Delgado, the outspoken
founder of Friends of Pelham Parkway,
distributed what she said was 1,400 fliers
with members of her group about the shelter,
starting in January. The group blamed
the community board for not holding public
meetings about the shelter sooner. “After
3 months of inaction, the board is basically
approving this shelter with NO
community notice or input,” a flyer, seen
hanging in an apartment building in January,
read.
But not all board members had stayed
quiet.
Board member Bernadette Ferrara
The former bingo hall at 2028 White Plains Road was destined to become a men’s shelter, until the city pulled its plan on March 18.Photo | Adrian Childress
said in an Oct. 15 letter that there should
be a town hall on the matter, and vice
chair Yahay Obeid created an online petition
that garnered 599 signatures demanding
that no more shelters come to the community
district.
Even after an in-person town hall --
which D’Angelo and Delgado both said drew
200 people -- that took place the same evening
as the Feb. 3 online meeting, more than
15 constituents signed up to speak about the
shelter at a Feb. 24 CB11 meeting.
Councilmember Oswald Feliz, who did
not respond to requests for comment for this
article, said at the Feb. 3 online meeting that
the community — like people experiencing
homelessness — has a lot of needs already.
“It’s not good policy to just concentrate
needs upon needs,” said Feliz, a Fordham
Democrat.
CB11 board member John Johnson, like
the board chair, believes the new city administration
has to do with the change of
heart.
“Putting 540 single adult men’s beds in a
district that had no shelter for years seems
to be a bit too much,” he said.
But just last month, the city was still set
on making the shelter happen.
At the Feb. 3 online meeting, DSS Deputy
Commissioner Erin Drinkwater told CB11
that DHS is committed to pursuing all three
men’s shelters when asked if the plans were
set in stone.
According to Drinkwater, CB11 was notified
of the Blondell Avenue shelter in January
2020, which is slated to open in 2024 —
a delayed opening after the Department of
Environmental Conservation found toxic
chemicals and contaminants at a nearby
abandoned auto yard. The Poplar Street
shelter is planned to open in the first quarter
of 2023.
In a statement to the Bronx Times, a
DSS-DHS spokesperson said if the city determines
the need for more shelter beds in
the community in the future, it will identify
an alternative site and will “continue
to openly engage the community, as we have
always done,” echoing sentiments written
in the letter to D’Angelo.
Liberty One, the developer and owner of
the White Plains Road site since September,
was planning on building renovations for
the shelter. The Bronx Times reached out to
Liberty One about alternative plans for the
site and has not received a response. The
New York Times published an investigation
in December about Liberty One’s operator,
David Levitan.
A sign on the building stating that it is
for sale is outdated, one of the realtors told
the Bronx Times.
Councilmember Marjorie Velázquez, a
Throggs Neck Democrat, did not respond
to requests for comment for this article, but
she encouraged residents to speak out about
the proposal at a Feb. 8 Pelham Parkway
Neighborhood Association meeting about
the shelter.
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