16 THE QUEENS COURIER • JULY 26, 2018 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Ozone Park residents will sue city over homeless shelter plan
BY RYAN KELLEY
rkelley@ridgewoodtimes.com
Twitter @R_Kelley6
Residents 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
specifi cs. Th e 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 offi cers.”
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 Offi cer
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 fi ght for something it believes in.
Th en Bray added that “we don’t believe
that our clients destroy communities at
all,” and she was drowned out with boos.
Photos courtesy of the NYPD
8-month-old August Pippins was found safe after her father, Jerome Pippins, ran off with her.
Father in custody after running off with
his 8-month-old daughter in Jamaica
BY EMILY DAVENPORT
edavenport@qns.com / @QNS
A man remains locked up aft er he
allegedly took off with his infant daughter
from a homeless shelter in Jamaica
on Friday.
According to police, on July 20,
8-month-old August Pippins was at her
residence, a shelter located in the vicinity
of Van Wyck Expressway Service
Road and 90th Avenue, with her mother
when her father, 24-year-old Jerome
Pippins, got into an argument with the
mother at around 10:10 p.m.
Following the argument, Jerome forcibly
took August and fl ed the scene on
foot with her, heading southbound on
the Van Wyck Expressway Service Road.
An Amber Alert was issued aft er police
were notifi ed about the abduction.
At 8:15 a.m. on July 21, both August
and Jerome Pippins were found in
Harlem in good condition. EMS
responded and took August to Harlem
Hospital for observation.
Jerome Pippins was taken into custody
and was charged with burglary, acting
in a manner injurious to a child and
custodial interference.
Court records indicated that Pippins
remains held on $75,000 bail or $50,000
bond, and must return to court on
Aug. 3.
Photo: 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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