Crown Heights Homeless Shelter Latest: Court Hearing Friday, Possible Opening Next Week

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — Residents of Crown Heights will square off in Kings County Supreme Court on Friday morning with the city of New York over its plan to open a homeless shelter at 1173 Bergen St.

The shelter had been scheduled to open Wednesday, but its doors remained shut after a petition to the court was filed by two community organizations and more than a dozen people who live in Crown Heights. (For full coverage of the hearing, and more Crown Heights news, be sure to subscribe to Patch's daily newsletter and free, real-time news alerts.)

At issue: Whether the city's law and processes related to land use and homeless shelter placement were followed by the Department of Homeless Services and operator CORE Services Group.

The 28 individuals and two block associations want the court to delay the opening because the process was not followed.

"The Mayor’s Office campaigned on a 'Tale of Two Cities,'" the petition argues. "That tale continues in Crown Heights. It is the same old story. Seeking to avoid the vocal criticism of the affluent and largely white citizenry of other neighborhoods, the City decides to follow the path of least resistance and foist yet another homeless shelter on the citizens of the largely African-American and West Indian community of Crown Heights.

"The citizens have had enough."

Isaac McGinn, a spokesman for the Department of Homeless Services, told Patch the department is "ensuring the building is ready for occupancy and completing final reviews." The department still expects to open the facility "next week."

"The City and CORE are opening this facility as soon as possible to give senior men from Brooklyn the opportunity to be closer to the communities they called home in order to stabilize their lives," McGinn said.

Lupe Todd-Medina, a CORE spokeswoman told Patch: "Our goal is to provide the community members with transitional housing that is closer to their support network and other anchors of life that will help them stabilize their lives."

The Bergen Street shelter is one of 90 that the city plans to open over the next five years under a plan from Mayor Bill de Blasio to combat homelessness in the city. Of the five sites that have been announced so far, two are in the Bronx and three are within a mile radius of each other in Crown Heights and Prospect Heights.

The Bergen Street shelter was scheduled to be the first of those three to open.

The hearing over the shelter was originally scheduled for Wednesday, and it was bumped to Friday after city officials agreed not to open the shelter on Wednesday, according to Jennifer Catto, a member of the Dean Street Block Association and one of the plaintiffs.

Catto said the massive public pressure on the city — in-person at two contentious public hearings and now in a formal petition — forced its hand.

"It’s one thing to protest," she said, "It’s another thing to put your name down on a court document."

McGinn, the DHS spokesman, disagreed with that characterization. He said that "minor delays" are "par for the course" when opening new facilities.

Todd-Medina, the CORE spokeswoman, echoed DHS, saying: "This is par for the course. We’re crossing all of our Ts and dotting all of our Is. Delays are not unexpected when opening new facilities. Our plan is to open as soon as we are able to and as soon as all of what needs to be in place is in place in order to ensure the best care for the clients."

Neither McGinn nor Todd-Medina would not comment on the specifics of what reviews were left to complete or if any part of the physical structure was not ready to open on Wednesday.

The lawsuit — filed against the city of New York, the Department of Homeless Services, CORE Services Group and any contractors working on the facility — wants to "permanently" enjoin the shelter from opening until the following have been completed for the shelter:

• The city's Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), a notoriously lengthy process for any land that will have a significant impact,
• a state environmental review of the site,
• a review of the shelter under the "Fair Share" Initiative, which governs where municipal facilities, including homeless shelters, can be placed, and
• the contract between the city and CORE Services is made public.

Until those four have been completed, the shelter should remain closed, the lawsuit says.

You can read the petition, in full, below:

Image via Marc Torrence, Patch