Park Slope Area To Get More Homeless Shelters, De Blasio Says

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday morning that Park Slope and surrounding neighborhoods will see an increase in "homeless shelter capacity" under his new plan to combat homelessness.

De Blasio was answering listener questions on WNYC when a woman from Crown Heights called in to ask why her neighborhood had more homeless shelters than Park Slope, where de Blasio owns homes.

"Why do we continue to perpetuate the tale of two cities by having homeless shelters in black, minority, low-income communities?" the caller, Fior Ortiz-Joyner, asked.

"Every community has to be part of the solution," de Blasio told her. "In fact, the community board I come from, Community Board 6 in Brooklyn, under our plan, will see an increase in homeless shelter capacity to align to the number of people who come from the community board who are in our shelter system."

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Ortiz-Joyner is a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed against the city by Crown Heights residents who say their neighborhood is unfairly overburdened by shelters compared to others in Brooklyn and New York City.

Because of the lawsuit, a judge has temporarily blocked the opening of a shelter in Crown Heights. That shelter is one of 90 that the mayor wants to open over the next five years, while ending the use of hotels and "cluster sites" in private apartments.

Park Slope and other more white and affluent neighborhoods have been the target of residents in Crown Heights and Bed-Stuy, where there are more shelters.

The city has said it wants to put homeless people in shelters in communities where they are from.

"Is there a dilemma here between wanting to put the shelters proportionately in the neighborhoods where they come from and, on the other hand, that overburdens communities that are poor with unwanted public facilities?" WNYC host Brian Lehrer asked de Blasio.

"If they’re unwanted, then that’s a moral question," de Blasio responded. "How can people feel that their very own neighbors and people who grew up or have lived in that community for a long time are quote-unquote 'unwanted?' I reject that."

To that, Ortiz-Joyner, the caller, asked, "Where is data that they’re coming from CB8 or Crown Heights?"

De Blasio responded: "I’m happy to debate with Fior. She doesn’t know her facts."

According to data from the Department of Homeless Services, Community District 6 — which includes Park Slope, Gowanus, Red Hook, Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill — shelters 271 people, while there are 347 people in the whole shelter system who are from the area.

Of those 271 people, 172 are in a hotel that will no longer house homeless people under de Blasio's plan.

Community District 8, where Ortiz-Joyne lives, shelters 1,235 people, and 1,072 people in the shelter system are from the area. The city says that by the time de Blasio's plan is fully implemented, the district will see a reduction of 100 shelter beds.

In court filings, the city has said that about a third of the people at the Crown Heights shelter will come from that community district, while another third will come from nearby districts and a final third from the rest of Brooklyn.

Of the 90 shelters de Blasio plans to open, five locations have been announced. Two have already opened in the Bronx, and three are within a one-mile radius of each other in Prospect Heights and Crown Heights.

A shelter for women in Prospect Heights has also opened to little fanfare. The shelter that has been blocked is on Bergen Street in northern Crown Heights.

And the third shelter is in southern Crown Heights, in a separate community district. That shelter has faced community opposition for similar reasons of oversaturation. It isn't scheduled to open until May, and residents there are said to be considering a lawsuit of their own.

"Our plan gives our homeless neighbors, who come from every community in New York City, the opportunity to be sheltered closer to their support networks and home communities," Jaclyn Rothenberg, a spokeswoman for the mayor, told Patch in an emailed statement.

"The mayor's neighborhood of Park Slope has a need for space and will of course be playing a role in this citywide responsibility."

Department of Homeless Services spokesman Isaac McGinn told Patch there is not yet a specific plan for a Park Slope shelter, and the community will be notified once there is.

Image via Marc Torrence