16 JULY 26, 2018 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Ozone Park residents to fi le lawsuit
against city over homeless shelter
BY RYAN KELLEY
RKELLEY@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
TWITTER @R_KELLEY6
Reside1nts of Ozone Park came
together by the hundreds this
week to push back against Mayor
Bill de Blasio and the Department of
Homeless Services (DHS) for placing a
controversial homeless shelter in the
heart of their neighborhood, and they
plan on taking the city all the way to
court.
Well over 500 people packed into
the church hall of the Nativity of the
Blessed Virgin Mary on July 19 for a
town hall meeting with a panel of DHS
offi cials and representatives from Lantern
Community Services, a nonprofi t
that will operate the proposed shelter.
As announced by DHS in June, the
shelter will be located at the Christ
Evangelical Lutheran Church on 101st
Avenue — which is already under
renovation — and it will house 113 men
with mental illnesses.
Sam Esposito, the civic activist
largely responsible for organizing
the meeting, began the proceedings
with a 25-minute monologue before
members of the panel spoke, followed
by local elected offi cials and questions
from members of the community.
During the questioning, Esposito
briefl y interrupted to announce that
he had found an attorney that will fi le
a lawsuit next week against the city on
behalf of Ozone Park.
“I believe that the city assumed that
we were going to roll over and play
dead,” Esposito said. “We’re going to
show the city that we’re going to fi ght
when it comes to our city and our
community.”
When reached over the phone on
July 20, Chris Murray, an attorney at
Ruskin, Moscou, Faltischek, P.C., told
the Ridgewood Times that the city has
failed to follow a number procedures
they are required to when creating
a new homeless shelter, though he
would not get into specifics. The
lawsuit will seek an injunction that
stops the city from developing the
site until they comply with the laws
in question, Murray said.
But it was neither the lawsuit nor
the size of the crowd that showed
Ozone Park’s willingness to to fi ght
— it was the crowd’s demeanor.
While Esposito began his speech by
thanking the members of the panel
for coming to have a dialogue with
the community, the panel was oft en
showered with boos and heckling
throughout the night. When Senator
Joseph Addabbo, Councilman Eric
Ulrich and Assembly members Mike
Miller and Stacey Pheff er-Amato all
spoke out against the shelter, they
were met with massive applause.
Rather than direct his statements
toward the panel, however, Addabbo
took aim at de Blasio.
“Look what you’ve done: You’ve created
fear, animosity, anger that I have
not seen in any other prior administration,”
Addabbo said. “If the mayor
did the right thing and listened to us,
let us work with you on solving this
problem, we wouldn’t be here tonight.”
Aft er meeting with DHS in June,
Addabbo was given until Aug. 5 to
come up with alternative locations
for the shelter. While there are “a
couple of decent spots” that he has
found, he told the Ridgewood Times
aft er the meeting, he also plans to use
the feedback given by the community
at the meeting in further discussions
with the agency.
Miller explained that the system is
backwards, alleging that “collusion”
takes place between a landlord, DHS
and service provider to fi nd a site
before coming to the community for
its input. He also expressed concern
over landlords making money on
such deals, and pointed out the community’s
belief that placing so many
mentally ill men in close proximity to
schools and churches is unsafe.
Ulrich, who said he went to preschool
where the homeless shelter will
be built, also began by calling out the
mayor and saying that the members of
the panel should not be the targets of
the community’s frustration. Minutes
later, however, he called out a panelist
for rolling his eyes and shaking his
head, and was met with raucous cheers.
“While you’re shaking your heads, I
want you to take this message back to
the mayor tonight,” Ulrich said. “We are
compassionate. We want to be part of the
solution, not part of the problem. We have
given you several other locations within
Community Board 9 … We demand better.
We want better. We are better.”
When it came time for questioning,
DHS First Deputy Commissioner
Jackie Bray did most of the answering;
three of the six panel members never
spoke.
When asked if there will be 24-hour
NYPD security at the homeless shelter,
Bray said that “there will be 24/7 security
that is overseen by the NYPD, as all
of our security is, but it is unlikely to
be DHS police officers.”
Nearby, 102nd Precinct commander
Captain Courtney Nilan
could be seen shaking her head in
disapproval.
When asked if Lantern had ever
operated a shelter with only mentally
ill men before, Lantern Chief
Program Officer Amy Berg said
they had not, but added that they
have experience working with that
population in other capacities.
In the end, Bray attempted to reiterate
that homelessness is “an experience,
not an identity,” and DHS
clients come from every community
in the city. She also commended the
audience for its obvious compassion
and willingness to show up in force
to fight for something it believes in.
Then Bray added that “we don’t
believe that our clients destroy communities
at all,” and she was drowned
out with boos.
hoto: Ryan Kelley/QNS
Sam Esposito speaks in front of the crowd at Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church on July 19 during a
town hall meeting to combat a proposed homeless shelter.
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