BRONX W www.BXTimes.com EEKLY December 8, 2019 2
CB 12, residents oppose 2 homeless shelters
Northwest Bronx longtime activist, Heidi Hynes, passes at 51
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 Bernacke, 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
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