Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against One Brooklyn Homeless Shelter; Other Remains Blocked

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — A Brooklyn judge on Monday afternoon dismissed a lawsuit filed by Crown Heights residents against a homeless shelter for senior men planned for their neighborhood, according to the city's Department of Homeless Services. The men will begin moving in "immediately," the department said.

The dismissal is a win for Mayor Bill de Blasio's plan to open 90 homeless shelters across the city over the next five years and end the use of "cluster" and hotel sites.

Another shelter under that plan, in the southern part of the neighborhood, though, remains blocked from adding any more families following a lawsuit from a different group of neighbors.

"Today’s order dismissing the lawsuit and ending the injunction is a positive step forward for our homeless neighbors from Brooklyn who now have the opportunity to be sheltered closer to the communities they call home," Isaac McGinn, a spokesman for DHS, told Patch.

"With the recognition of our vital need for these beds, we will be moving seniors into this location immediately—and we will continue to work with the community, as we have throughout this process, to create a welcoming and supportive environment for these seniors as they stabilize their lives."

The shelter on Bergen Street, between New York and Brooklyn avenues, was closed for more than two months after it was scheduled to open in mid-March. The lawsuit against it claimed that Crown Heights was unfairly overburdened by homeless shelters.

"We're obviously oversaturated and the city doesn’t seem to care," Fior Ortiz-Joyner, one of the plaintiffs in the case, said. "We are not heartless individuals, but we are housing more than the population that we have in the [shelter] system; the opposite is true in Park Slope."

The other shelter, on the corner of Rogers Avenue and Crown Street, opened on Monday, when 10 families moved in. But a group of residents sued the city and the shelter's operator, Samaritan Village, using a similar argument as their neighbors to the north.

Brooklyn Judge Katherine A. Levine, the judge hearing both cases, put a temporary restraining order on the Rogers Avenue property through June 2, the date of the next hearing on the case, and barred any more families from moving in.

The shelters sit on opposite sides of the city's Community District boundaries.

"We are definitely pleased with that ruling," Dion Ashman, whose block association is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the Rogers Avenue shelter, told Patch. "We by no means think that this is some kind of a victory but we know that it’s a progressive step in the right direction."

Ashman and his neighbors in southern Crown Heights want to see the building turned into permanent housing for low-income residents and a residence for homeless students at nearby Medgar Evers College.

"Ten families are already residing at this location, where Samaritan Village is providing comprehensive social services that will help them transition out of shelter into permanent housing—and more families deserve the same high-quality support," Isaac McGinn, a spokesman for the Department of Homeless Services, told Patch in an emailed statement.

"We look forward to a swift resolution in this case and remain confident we’ll be able to quickly reopen the doors at 267 Rogers so that we can help 132 homeless families with children get back on their feet."

Three of the other five sites that have been announced under the mayor's plan so far have opened without incident.

Image via Marc Torrence, Patch