www.BXTimes.com BRONX WEEKLY May 31, 2020 2
City’s Department of Homeless Services opens temporary
Wakefi eld shelter without notifying community
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
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
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.”
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