Planned Washington Heights Shelter Will House Women, City Says

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — A planned Washington Heights homeless shelter that was supposed to house 175 men will now serve women following complaints from local residents and elected officials, officials announced Friday.

Elected officials such as City Councilmember Ydanis Rodriguez, State Assemblymember Carmen De La Rosa and Congressman Adriano Espaillat celebrated the change in plans as a win for the community, but chided the city's Department of Homeless Services for not consulting neighbors before making initial plans for the site.

"Just think about any homeless shelter being proposed to be opened at 75th and West End or 93rd and Third Avenue," Rodriguez said Friday in front of the Audubon Avenue shelter site. "All residents would be notified, all residents would be consulted. [The city] would wait to get the support of elected officials. They didn't have that process here."

Rodriguez said that he spoke with Department of Homeless Services Commissioner Steven Banks this week, who assured him that women staying at the Audubon Avenue facility would live there for at least one year. Rodriguez said the longer-term nature of the stay will help people living in the facility become trusted members of the community. The city councilman said he is working with the city to ensure women living at the facility will be able to live with their children.

The city decided to change course for the Audubon Avenue shelter due to concerns voiced by Washington Heights residents and local officials, a spokesman for the Department of Homeless Services said.

"We remain committed to open, ongoing engagement with communities and, where appropriate, will make adjustments to reflect feedback that also addresses our current needs. Thanks to this collaborative process, we’re moving forward with opening this high-quality borough based facility at 268 Audubon Avenue where we’ll serve and support women experiencing homelessness as they get back their feet—and we’re confident that through support and compassion, we will make this the best experience it can be for these individuals," DHS Spokesman Isaac McGinn said in a statement.

While plans have changed for 268 Audubon Ave., the city does anticipate identifying another site in Washington Heights for a men's shelter, city officials said. More than 850 people experiencing homelessness identified Manhattan's Community District 12 — which includes the Washington Heights and Inwood neighborhoods — as heir home, but the district only has about half that number of shelter beds in the area.

A DHS representative said that residents, community groups and local officials can become involved in the site selection process for shelters by identifying sites that will work well. The city's "Turning the Tide" initiative to build 90 new community-based shelters throughout the city features an open-ended bid process for new shelters.

Washington Heights residents spoke out against the city's original shelter plan during an April public hearing. Residents shared fears about safety in the area, worried about the site's proximity to schools and religious centers and a panned the city for a lack of community outreach.

The theme of most comments at the hearing was consistent: Washington Heights doesn't lack compassion for the homeless, but the city's plan to build a shelter at 286 Audubon Ave. won't solve the city's homelessness crisis and won't be good for the neighborhood.

Maria Flores, who lives right across the street from the Audubon Avenue site, said she wouldn't feel comfortable letting her 15-year-old daughter leave home alone.

"They're not only going to bring the shelter, they're going to bring 175 men," Flores said. "Single men that are going to be harassing our girls, harassing our neighbors, disrespecting us all day... we don't know what background they have, we don't know who these people are."

Read Patch's full article on the public hearing here.

State Senator Robert Jackson and members of Community Board 12 also held a press conference at the site of the shelter Friday to praise the city's change of plans. Jackson said that while he's glad the shelter will house women, it's important not to "subscribe to the stigma against single adult men experiencing homelessness."

Jackson said that he pushed to have the shelter serve women instead of men because of a lack of services for women experiencing homelessness in the Washington Heights area. A current men's shelter exists at the Washington Heights Armory on West 168th Street.

Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, who supported the city's plan for a men's shelter, said that she is "happy" that the city listened to community members and changed its plan for the site.

"Solving the homelessness crisis in this city is a marathon, not a sprint, and I have long been an advocate for immense community input into any solution. I look forward to working with the Washington Heights community, and communities of future proposed sites, to ensure that DHS listens to their needs and concerns. This is a crisis we will have to fix together," Brewer said in a statement.