WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES AUGUST 29, 2019 15
Glendale homeless shelter battle
2016, holding nightly protests outside
the hotel as well as a march through
the community.
Political fallout
The anger over the Maspeth shelter
had repercussions at the polls; that
September, nine-term incumbent
Assemblywoman Margaret Markey
lost her seat in the Democratic
primary to attorney Brian Barnwell.
Even though she had publicly
announced her opposition to the
proposal, Markey had taken flak in
the community for failing to show
up at rallies and a public meeting.
At a special Aug. 31, 2016 meeting of
Community Board 5 in Maspeth, she
was roundly jeered by the crowd, and
cut short her own remarks.
Things finally calmed down in
Maspeth in October 2016, when
the DHS froze its plan to fully
convert the Holiday Inn Express to a
permanent homeless shelter. Instead,
it opted to move in 30 homeless
men on a temporary basis, but that
arrangement would continue for
nearly three years; the DHS moved
homeless men out of the Maspeth
hotel in August 2019.
Even as tensions reduced to a mere
simmer, residents from Queens
continued to protest the use of hotels
and residential sites for homeless
shelters — at times taking their case
to Brooklyn and picketing outside
the home of DHS Commissioner
Steven Banks.
The political fallout from the
shelter war also contributed to
Crowley’s defeat in her bid for a third
City Council term in 2017.
After unsuccessfully challenging
her in the Democratic primary
that year, Holden continued his
campaign on third-party lines and,
later, secured the Republican Party
nomination. He wound up narrowly
defeating Crowley in the November
general election, powered largely by
Hundreds of Maspeth residents marched through the neighborhood in August 2016 against a proposed homeless
shelter in their community. File photo/QNS
more than 8,000 Republican votes.
Now the area’s most outspoken
shelter opponent had an official
seat at City Hall representing the
communities fighting them.
Playing games with City Hall
Soon after becoming the area’s new
City Council member, Holden seemed
to score an early win. The DHS
informed him that it no longer had
plans to proceed with the Glendale
shelter. Seeing further potential for
the site, Holden would later pitch
the location to the Department
of Education as a new public
school campus.
But less seven months later, the
DHS reversed course again and told
Holden they were once again eyeing
78-16 Cooper Ave. as a homeless
shelter. Construction work on the
site, which had been dormant for
years, soon began in earnest — as
did the protestations of local civic
associations and residents.
Even so, as the construction went
on and the rumor mill churned, there
was still nothing official from the
DHS about the fate of the Glendale
site. In March 2019, in addressing
speculation within Glendale and
Middle Village that the shelter was
coming, a Holden spokesperson told
QNS that nothing imminent was on
the horizon.
“We support our constituents
coming together to push back against
the property owner, who is only
concerned about making money
with no regard to the community,”
the spokesperson said then. “But
ultimately it is not up to the property
owner if a shelter is going there or not.
It’s up to the city, and there has been
no contract for a shelter put forth by
the city. The councilman continues to
push for a school at the location and
is regularly communicating with the
relevant city agencies.”
That comment came ahead of an
April 13 protest by the Glendale
Middle Village Coalition on Long
Island outside the home of property
owner Michael Wilner, which also
stopped briefly outside the temple
where he was said to be attending
sabbath services.
Holden was not part of the protest,
but did speak with participants
after they returned to Queens, and
took to social media later to publicly
condemn their picket outside
Wilner’s temple.
Now that the DHS has announced
its intentions for Glendale and
Ridgewood, Holden made clear in an
Aug. 23 statement that he intends to
fight the city tooth and nail.
“I tried to fight against this shelter
the right way, by negotiating with
city agencies and coming up with
reasonable proposals, only to have
the rug pulled out from under me,”
he said of the Glendale plan. “I was
told countless times that DHS and
SCA loved my plan to build a new
school on Cooper Avenue, and the
Mayor’s approval was all that was
needed. But the mayor recently told
me he knew nothing about the plan.
I’m sick of playing this game with City
Hall, so now I will fight back the best
way I know how, with my neighbors
by my side.”
Robert Holden celebrating his victory over incumbent City Councilwoman
Elizabeth Crowley on Election Night 2017. File photo/QNS
Members of the Glendale Middle Village Coalition protest outside the Long
Island home of Glendale property owner Michael Wilner in April 2019.
Photo : Max Parrott/QNS
/WWW.QNS.COM
