Wakefi eld homeless shelter opens
Citys opens temporary shelter without notifying community
BRONX TIMES REPORTER,BTR MAY 29-JUNE 4, 2020 3
BY JASON COHEN
The NYC Department
of Homeless services
appears to have
reneged on a promise
to not turn 4747 Bronx
Blvd. into a homeless
shelter, without so
much as an email to local
stakeholders.
In 2016, the city
nixed plans to build a
shelter for people with
HIV after outcries from
the public. However,
according to Community
Board 12 District
Manager George Torres,
a temporary shelter
housing 150 men in
a 92-room hotel opened
up in that location on
May 20.
Torres told the
Bronx Times that
Tonya Brown, who
lives in the community,
told him about it and he
received no notifi cation
from DHS. Torres then
contacted the agency,
which confi rmed the
news.
According to Torres,
CB 12 has four shelters
and it was recently targeted
for two additional
200 bed shelters — one
at East 233rd Street and
the other at Furman
Avenue.
“DHS assured us
that this site would not
be used as a shelter and
they lied, so I am not
certain I can trust what
they say,” Torres said.
According to DHS
spokesman Isaac
McGinn, as of this
weekend, there are
9,000 individuals experiencing
homelessness
residing in commercial
hotel settings, with that
number increasing up
to 10,000 by next week.
“At DHS, we’re continuing
to implement
tiered strategies and
proactive initiatives to
combat COVID-19, protect
the New Yorkers
who we serve, and ensure
anyone who needs
it is connected immediately
to care or to isolation
— and the use of
commercial hotels is
central to this work,”
McGinn said. “Through
these efforts, our essential
staff has been able
to help nearly 800 New
Yorkers effectively isolate,
resolve their conditions
and depart isolation.
At the same time,
through these strategies,
we have also proactively
relocated and
continue to proactively
relocate thousands of
individuals from targeted
shelters to commercial
hotel settings
out of an abundance of
caution, including seniors
and single adults
from larger congregate
locations, who are not
sick at this time.”
In response to DHS’
decision to create the
temporary shelter, Assemblyman
Jeffrey Dinowitz,
Congressman
Eliot Engel, Senator
Jamaal Bailey, Councilman
Andrew Cohen
and Bronx Community
Board 12 issued the following
joint statement:
“We are outraged
that the placement of
homeless residents is
being undertaken with
such a callous disregard
for the people involved.
Our Wakefi eld
community already
carries a disproportionate
share of our
civic responsibility to
take care of vulnerable
populations, with several
other DHS facilities
in the immediate
vicinity of 4747 Bronx
Boulevard including a
men’s shelter housing
over a 100 residents at
4380 Bronx Boulevard
and another planned
facility at White Plains
Road, all located within
a one-mile radius.”
The group added,
“Worse even than
breaking their promise
that they would not put
another DHS facility at
4747 Bronx Boulevard
is the fact that the city
appears to be pushing
this forward without
so much as a courtesy
notifi cation to the people
in this community.
A rushed decision that
disregards how people
should be treated is
not going to yield positive
results for anyone
involved – the community,
the homeless residents,
or our overall
goal of placing people
in long-term affordable
housing.”
Dinowitz continued
to express his frustrations.
While he realizes
there is a homeless
problem citywide and
knows people need
places to stay during
the pandemic, he condemns
the lack of transparency
from DHS.
The assemblyman
stressed that after he
and his colleagues
fought in 2016 to not
have a shelter there, he
feels blindsided by this
decision. Like Torres,
he received no communication
beforehand action
took place.
“One of the most
frustratingly consistent
criticisms I have
had of how the city has
attempted to house the
homeless is the horrendous
communication
and obfuscation from
the city,” Dinowitz
said. “The entire process
seems designed to
exclude the community
from the decision making
process, laying a
foundation of distrust
and resentment before
anyone even moves in.
In my numerous conversations
about homeless
shelters over the
years, I have found that
the overwhelming majority
of people care
about helping homeless
individuals. What people
don’t like is being
lied to or ignored.”
Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz (c) and other elected offi cials express outrage over a broken promise by NYCDHS regarding
the homeless shelter coming to CB 12 Courtesy of AM Dinowitz