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‘THIS IS FRAUD’
Locals demand answers on cost of Park Slope homeless shelters
Beating the heat
Splash: Young Gowanusaurs cooled off during the weekend heatwave at the Douglass and DeGraw Pool —
also known as the “Double DD Pool” — as temperatures surpassed 100 degrees with humidity on July 21.
Photo by Paul Martinka
An additional $6,000 per unit
cost comes from other non-rent
overhead expenses — which is
more than double what Women
In Need pays at a similar shelter
in Brownsville, according
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BY AIDAN GRAHAM
Brownstone Brooklyn residents
gathered at Grand Prospect
Hall on Tuesday to condemn
the city for inking a
preliminary contract deal that
will cost taxpayers more than
$10,000 per unit, per month
in operating expenses at two
planned homeless shelters on
Fourth Avenue in Park Slope.
“Where does it say in the
city charter, or anywhere, that
the taxpayers of this city have
a responsibility to pay almost
$11,000 per month to house
homeless people in luxury condos
that the people in the community
can’t afford to live in?”
railed Bo Samajopoulos.
According to public data, the
city is planning on inking two
roughly nine-year contracts
for the neighboring buildings
— to be operated by non-profi t
Women In Need — at a combined
cost of $260 million.
The buildings — at 535
Fourth Ave. and 555 Fourth
Ave. — will cost a combine
$30 million per year, including
$11 million in yearly
rental costs. Monthly rents
per unit average out to $3,547
and $3,650, respectively.
2020 TODAY!
to Gothamist. Women in Need
did not respond to a request for
comment on the discrepancy
between service costs on the
two shelters.
“As far as I can tell, this
is fraud,” said Samajopoulos.
“This scheme...needs to go in
the garbage where it belongs.
And the people who thought it
up need to go to jail where they
belong.”
Councilman Brad Lander
(D-Park Slope) took the microphone
at Tuesday’s meeting to
defend the cost, arguing that
decades of stashing homeless
shelters in lower income neighborhoods
— where rent prices
were lower — lead to a damning
legacy of perpetual poverty.
“It had the consequence of
concentrating homeless shelters
in the lowest income neighborhoods,”
said Lander. “The
decision to pay extra to be
willing to put these shelters in
the full diversity and array of
neighborhoods in our city...was
a decision made by the de Blasio
administration, and it is indeed
one that I support.”
Residents pushed back —
asking why this developer was
chosen to receive what appears
to be a windfall from the city.
“I would like to know how
these two developers were chosen
to get full rent, and at full
price,” said Amichaim Abramson.
“I’m all for homeless
shelters — but 3,500 dollars
a month to these developers?
Something feels very wrong.
I would really like someone
to explain how this happened,
and who negotiated it.”
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