C RY D E R
P O I N T
MARCH 12
Jennifer Shannon addresses the crowd at the Feb. 24 rally outside a proposed College Point homeless shelter site. Photo by Bruce Adler
College Point residents resolve to keep
up shelter fight
BY JENNA BAGCAL
jbagcal@qns.com
@jenna_bagcal
College Point residents continued their relentless fight
on Sunday against the city’s planned 200-bed men’s shelter
as the deadline for its September opening looms
near.
On Feb. 24, A Better College Point and the CP
Residents’ Coalition (CPRC) gathered with hundreds of
community members and northeast Queens lawmakers
at a pop-up rally outside of the shelter site, at 127-
03 20th Ave.
This latest rally comes fresh off the heels of the
College Point Civic and Taxpayers Association rally on
Feb. 16 and, two days prior to that affair, a press conference
organized by longtime shelter opponents state
Senator John Liu, Assemblyman Dan Rosenthal and
Councilman Paul Vallone.
“We need to stay organized. Don’t listen to the people
who keep telling you, ‘Oh, it’s a done deal.’ Ignore them.
Educate them,” CPRC spokesperson Jennifer Shannon
said at the Feb. 24 rally.
“Under the dark of night, the city, the de Blasio
administration have put this institution … without letting
12 CRYDER POINT COURIER | MARCH 2019 | WWW.QUEENSCOURIER.COM
anybody in the community know about it, and
making us believe that it’s a done deal. Jennifer is absolutely
right: nothing is a done deal,” added Liu.
Shannon encouraged the crowd to continue writing
letters to Governor Cuomo despite a lack of support
from the state official.
“This is going up to our governor, who is ignoring us.
Many of you have written the governor and you get back
a nice little letter that says, ‘Sorry, can’t help you, talk to
the city.’ Last time I checked, I lived in New York and he
represents me,” Shannon said.
At the beginning of February, concerned residents
from all across New York City formed the “5 Boro
Coalition” to fight the 90 homeless shelters the city plans
to create over the next five years.
State Senator John Liu and Assemblyman Dan
Rosenthal were among speakers at Sunday’s rally
According to Shannon, who serves as the Queens coalition
chair, the board members are trying to get legislation
passed that will help keep people in need in their
homes.
“You cannot fight this in College Point. We can’t
fight it in Ozone Park. We can’t fight it in Queens. No
one’s listening,” said Ozone Park resident and 5 Boro
Coalition President Sam Esposito. “But if we fight it collectively
as the five boroughs … they’re gonna hear us
loud and clear and they’re gonna come to us and they’re
gonna work with us on solutions to the problem.”
Also at Sunday’s rally was public advocate candidate
Manny Alicandro, who just recently became
vocal about his opposition to the shelter.
“It’s very, very important that we keep up the pressure.
We can’t stop the pressure,” Alicandro said. “We
have to be concerned about the safety of our communities.
We have to be concerned about the safety of
our children.”
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