Stop Blocking UES Shelter, Neighborhood Leaders Tell Eli Zabar

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Amid accusations that the restaurateur Eli Zabar has blocked the construction of a Yorkville homeless shelter, a coalition of neighbors are now calling on Zabar to let the project move forward.

The dispute centers on the planned "Safe Haven" on East 91st Street between First and York avenues, which will occupy a not-yet-built seven-story building. Operated by the nonprofit Goddard Riverside, the Safe Haven was strongly backed by a neighborhood community board when it was first proposed last year.

But the shelter, first slated to open this past January, is now well behind schedule. One reason, according to its backers, is Zabar — owner of nearly a dozen restaurants around the Upper East Side and heir to the West Side Zabar's grocery business.

Zabar owns the building next door to the planned shelter, at 421 East 91st St., plus at least four other nearby buildings, according to public records first reported by the New York Post.

Bayrock Capital, the developer building the shelter, accused Zabar in a lawsuit of pledging to do "everything he could to delay" the project — namely by refusing to give developers access to his next-door building so they could install construction protections.

At one point, Zabar said he would let the project advance only if the city promised to limit use of the shelter to "a specific gender," according to Bayrock's suit, which was filed late last month. (The suit does not specify which gender.)

Now, a group of more than 50 Upper East Side residents are calling on Zabar to let the Safe Haven be built, saying they are "appalled" by his alleged obstructionism.

The demand was made in a letter sent to Zabar this week and shared exclusively with Patch. Signers include three members of Community Board 8, five local Democratic Party leaders, and a minister at a neighborhood church.

"Many of us shop at your stores, and we are especially upset to learn that this money has been used to fund exclusionary attempts to keep homeless New Yorkers out of our neighborhood," the letter reads.

Reached for comment, an attorney for Zabar said that his opposition to the project centered on the developers' construction plans, rather than the shelter itself.

"I am not aware of any of the statements the developer attributes to Mr. Zabar," attorney Daniel Schneider said in an email. "Instead of resolving those issues, the developer appears to have waged a political battle that misrepresents the facts and the issues in play."

"The safety of Mr. Zabar's property is what is and always has been relevant," he added.

Once built, the shelter will include about 88 beds and serve single adult men and women, organizers have said. As a Safe Haven, the facility will have a low threshold for admission, designed to get people off the streets and into a safe bed — where they can receive meals, social services and counseling.

Unlike at traditional shelters, residents will not be required to leave during the day, according to Goddard Riverside, which already runs a similar Safe Haven in Elmhurst, Queens.

The facility will have 24/7 security, as well as psychiatry services for any seriously mentally ill people who are admitted, organizers say. Still, the project has encountered opposition from some neighbors, including the owner of a children's gymnastics gym housed within Zabar's next-door building, who claimed that shelter residents would endanger kids walking down the block.

Supporters have included State Sen. Liz Krueger and former City Councilmember Ben Kallos, who helped advocate for the Safe Haven.

Julie Menin, who succeeded Kallos on the Council, told Patch this week that she still supports the shelter, which she said would "address the overwhelming need to support local unhoused individuals with alternative support services."

"I am committed to ensuring that individuals experiencing homelessness and living on our streets receive the services and shelter they desperately need," she said. "This location needs to move forward and all parties need to work collaboratively together."

Organizers of the letter to Zabar included the groups Showing Up for Racial Justice and the Open Hearts Initiative, which formed in an effort to defend homeless residents who were temporarily placed in Upper West Side hotels during the pandemic.

Rather than making the neighborhood safer, stopping the shelter would only make homelessness more visible on the Upper East Side, advocates argue.

Among those who signed on to the letter to Zabar was Carl Garrison, minister of homeless outreach at the Manhattan Church of Christ on East 80th Street, who said in a statement that "no one chooses, or deserves, to be homeless."

"As a neighborhood that represents substantial wealth, hosting a safe haven is the least that we can do, from the Upper East Side, to help confront the crises of homelessness in this city."

Related coverage:

• New UES Shelter Overwhelmingly Backed By Community Board
• New 'Safe Haven' Shelter On Upper East Side Welcomed By Board

Have an Upper East Side news tip? Contact reporter Nick Garber at nick.garber@patch.com.