City, Residents On Brink Of Deal To Open Crown Heights Homeless Shelter

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN, NY — The city and a group of residents suing it are on the brink of a deal that would allow a homeless shelter for 104 homeless men to open in Crown Heights.

Brooklyn Supreme Court judge Katherine A. Levine gave the two sides until Wednesday to reach an agreement or she will rule on the case outright — likely in favor of the city, according to the resdients' attorneys who were in court Monday.

The deal would not include many of the demands made by residents — including that a time limit be placed on the shelter contract or that it not open at all — but would require the city to keep promises made about security and the demographics of the residents of the shelter, on Bergen Street between Brooklyn and New York avenues.

"It’s bittersweet," Fior Ortiz-Joyner, one of more than two dozen Crown Heights residents who attached their names to the lawsuit, told Patch.

"At the same time you do have a homeless crisis in the city. Low-income housing would be the best solution, but if the mayor thinks a shelter is the best way to go, at least we have a way to hold them accountable if something goes wrong. It's on record."

In court Monday, Levine once again called attorneys for the two sides into a back room to discuss a possible agreement. After they emerged, Jacqueline McMickens brought her group of clients into the hallway to update them on the discussions.

The community members claim in their lawsuit that their neighborhood already has too many homeless shelters in it and this new one would violate the city's "Fair Share" act that governs where city facilities can be placed.

But, McMickens told them Monday, the city's Fair Share criteria does not lay out specific, numerical guidelines and requires little more than "lip service" from the city when placing a shelter. While their agreement would prevent them from going to appeals court, McMickens told her clients that the proposed deal would give them a concrete case in court should the city violate the things it agrees to.

"If they don't do the things they say they're going to do, this case stays alive," she told them.

It was a tough pill to swallow for some of her clients.

"We are a small, grassroots group, and appealing unfortunately takes money and unfortunately that’s one of the downfalls of fighting the big city," Ortiz-Joyner told Patch. "You can’t fight City Hall."

Isaac McGinn, a spokesman for the Department of Homeless Services, told Patch in a statement: "We remain confident the court will recognize our vital need for these high-quality beds, as they have for decades in these kinds of cases. We also remain committed to continuing to work with the community, as we have throughout this process, to ensure Bergen House is integrated into the neighborhood and our clients are welcomed as neighbors."

The group of neighbors have also scheduled a community meeting for Monday night to talk about developments in their case against the shelter.

The shelter, which would be operated by CORE Services, is one of 90 slated to open over the next five years under a plan by Mayor Bill de Blasio to end the use of "cluster" sites and hotels to house homeless people.

Three of those 90 are already open, and the other two that have been proposed under the plan so far are both in Crown Heights. The other one in the neighborhood would house 132 families with children at Rogers Avenue and Carroll Street in the southern part of Crown Heights.

Neighbors of that site were expected to file a lawsuit of their own, though it's unclear if developments in this case may hamper their efforts.

Image: Marc Torrence, Patch staff