4
BROOKLYN WEEKLY, DECEMBER 22, 2019
Residents of the Bed-Stuy shelter are being scattered across the city to make room for 100 homeless men with mental
health issues. Photo by Caroline Ourso
Women’s shelter closing
to make room for men Chaim Deutsch is reportedly eyeing a run for Congress.
BY BEN VERDE
Residents of a Bedford-Stuyvesant
women’s shelter have been
given less than 30 days to pack
their bags as the city seeks to repopulate
the refuge with homeless
men, according to locals and shelter
residents.
The shelter at 85 Lexington
Ave., operated by Bowery Residents
Committee (BRC), is being
repurposed as a men’s shelter, with
a special focus on men with mental
illness, which neighbors and shelter
residents say was dropped on
their head with little warning.
“Nobody had notice, the case
managers told us that it was a surprise
to them as much as it was
to us,” said Tonya Williams, who
has lived at the shelter for nine
months.
Shelter residents were notifi ed
on Dec. 4 that they would be out by
January.
Women who had been staying
in the shelter have been begun to
be relocated to other shelters in the
city’s system, being sent out in carloads
at night, with some ending
up as far-away as the Bronx and
uptown Manhattan — and some
fl eeing the program altogether and
choosing to fend for themselves, locals
say.
Wherever they end up, shelter
residents will have to go through
the intake process again, which according
to Williams can take anywhere
from hours to days, but is reliably
dehumanizing.
“You may sit there for a day or
two with little to no sleep and no
ability to wash yourself,” she said.
“It can be pretty inhumane.”
“They are now being separated
from their support system, their
own community of women who all
live together in the building,” said
Keiko Niccolini, a Lexington Avenue
resident who is circulating
a petition opposing the change of
use. “They are not having continuity
in their access to services so
their treatment is being affected
and set back.”
Niccolini says the shelter residents
were good neighbors, and
that her and her neighbors are concerned
about the new shelter residents
bringing an unpredictable
element to the residential neighborhood
– and neighbors’ questions
have gone unanswered by
DHS Services bigwigs.
“The needs of 100 homeless
men with mental health issues…
present an entirely different set of
needs,” Niccolini said. “Is there a
need for additional security? Are
there sex offenders that are being
brought in?”
In emails obtained by the
Brooklyn Paper, the CEO and
president of BRC concedes that
the transfers at the Bed-Stuy shelter
were completely the decision of
the DHS, and that BRC employees
were kept in the dark just as residents
were.
“I want to be sure you know that
this was not BRC’s decision, but
rather that of the Department of
Homeless Services,” Muzzy Rosenblatt
wrote in an email to Niccolini.
“I am as disappointed as you
and many of your neighbors are.”
DHS spokesperson Arianna
Fishman said the transfers were
necessary in order to accommodate
the seasonal increase in homeless
men requiring shelter due to winter
weather. Fishman declined to
answer a follow up about whether
the same strategy has been used
during past winters.
The transfers come in the midst
of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Turning
the Tide program, a revamp of
the way the city handles homeless
New Yorkers that prioritizes housing
them in areas where they have
roots and within reasonable distances
of their support networks,
such as schools and jobs.
Meanwhile, shelter residents
were told that they can choose
where they end up, but Williams
says the vast tangled bureaucracy
of the DHS assured that residents
would end up wherever the city
could fi t them.
“They don’t talk to us, the clients,
they treat us like a number,”
Williams said. “Whenever there’s
a confl ict or anything that happens,
you don’t get to talk to them.
It’s this governing body that’s in
secret — but they do things that affect
your life.”
Councilman eyes
fellow Democrat’s
congressional seat
Photo by Chaim Deutsch
BY JESSICA PARKS
Sheepshead Bay’s Democratic
City Councilman Chaim
Deutsch is considering a bid for
United States Congress, which
would pit him against incumbant
Democratic Rep. Yvette
Clark, according to a report
from Gay City News.
Clarke, whose district spans
a large portion of Kings County
— including Park Slope, Sheepshead
Bay, Midwood, and Flatbush
— was fi rst elected to the
lower chamber of the nation’s
legislative branch in 2006, and
narrowly won a primary reelection
to progressive challenger
Adem Bunkeddeko during the
June 2018 primary elections.
Deutsch’s candidacy would
present a starkly different type
of opponent for Clarke, having
described himself as a “conservative
Democrat,” and racking
up a voting record that has angered
many within the activist
wing of the party.
Recently, for example,
Deutsch drew criticism from
some left-leaning voters for opposing
pro-LGBT policies — including
a bill that would outright
ban conversion therapy in
the fi ve boroughs, arguing that
people should have a “choice,”
according to Gay City News.
Deutsch also opposed the
Mayor’s scheme to close Rikers
Island prison complex and
transfer detainees to smaller
jails spread across the city —
which nonetheless passed the
City Council in October.
The orthodox Jewish politician
also garnered headlines
last month when he joined protesters
in Gravesend in calling
for the resignation of a Community
Education Council 22
board member who referred to
Asian students as “yellow” in
an email thread that circulated
to parental boards throughout
the city.
Deutsch was fi rst elected
to the 48th Council district
— which encompasses Sheepshead
Bay, Manhattan Beach,
Brighton Beach, and Midwood
— in 2013, and later won reelection
in 2017.
Now, Deutsch is barred by
term-limits from seeking another
term in the Council, and
is eyeing a seat in the nation’s
legislature, according to an
elected offi cial who spoke to
Gay City News under the condition
of anonymity.
He has yet to fi le with the
Federal Election Commission
as of Thursday, but the unnamed
offi cial told Gay City
News that Deutsch spoke of his
prospective candidacy during
an event on Dec. 5.
Councilman Deutsch declined
to comment on his potential
candidacy.