New Details On UES Homeless Shelter Revealed At Volatile Public Hearing

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — At a stormy public hearing on Monday night — which saw frequent instances of yelling, booing and attendees leaving in protest — officials revealed several new details on the women's homeless shelter opening in Lenox Hill.

The new, 200-bed homeless shelter at the corner of First Avenue and East 61st Street was first announced in a Jan. 21 Community Board 8 meeting and will open this April.

Monday's public hearing, hosted at the Caspary Auditorium at Rockefeller University, featured presentations from the New York City Department of Homeless Services, the site's operator Housing Solutions of New York, and Elite Investigations, which is leading the site's security.

Who will the residents be?

Housing Solutions of New York Chief Program Officer Xellex Rivera said the residents will be women, and roughly 78 percent of them will be employed at any given time. All of them will have case managers and social workers assigned to them. No men or children will be at this site.

The shelter will be classified as a "general population" shelter, meaning that it won't be a shelter for people with drug addiction or mental illness, Rivera told the crowd.

Some of the residents may be fleeing domestic violence, or may be elderly and facing rising rents, Rivera said. All of the residents will be referred through the city's Department of Homeless Services, Rivera said.

One of the first people at the meeting to speak in favor of the shelter, Alexis Keller, said she feels it's the community's duty to care for the homeless people in the neighborhood.

"Let's not forget someone died on the streets two weeks ago," she told the crowd, referencing the man who died outside on East 69th Street and First Avenue on Jan. 24, on one of the coldest nights of the year.

"I've been really astounded by the reaction in the neighborhood about the financial aspects of [the shelter]," Keller told Patch.

NYC Department of Social Services Deputy Commissioner Jamar Hooks said the site, once open, won't immediately be at full capacity, but rather slowly filled up over time.

Because the facility is located within 1,000 feet of a school, it will be subject to additional restrictions. Women on probation or parole for sex offenses will not be permitted to stay at the shelter.

What will the shelter be like?

The shelter will have eight floors. Three floors are dedicated to dormitory-style rooms with 13 to 14 beds and lockers in each room, with bathrooms and showers on each dormitory floor.

There is also a floor for offices, with 46 staff members, and a level for the cafeteria. The women at the shelter will be served three meals a day, as well as snacks, Rivera said.

The roof of the building will be an outdoor space for the residents to gather, to prevent loitering in front of the building during the day, Rivera said.

The shelter will be drug and alcohol free, though smoking cigarettes is permitted on the roof, Rivera said. All residents will be required to follow an 11 p.m. curfew. The lease for the shelter is 30 years.

Community Board 8 Chair Valerie Mason expressed reservations about the shelter’s physical layout and overall model, arguing that the large, congregate setup is neither humane nor effective.

"I mean, it looked like army barracks," she told Patch.

What will the security be like?

Elite Investigations CEO Dan Quinn said the building will have two TSA-style checkpoints to enter the shelter, and that six unarmed security officials, as well as a security supervisor, will be on shift at any given time, 24 hours a day.

There are 136 security cameras on site, with continuous monitoring. Some security guards will be stationed at the checkpoints, and others will be stationed at the cafeteria, the roof, and the dormitories, Quinn said.

The security guards will coordinate with NYPD as needed for escalated incidents, acting first to de-escalate onsite and then contacting NYPD with incident reports when escalation is required, Quinn said.

The NYPD will increase patrols in the neighborhood surrounding the shelter, NYPD's Deputy Inspector Lazarus, from the 19th Precinct, said to the crowd.

One of the most tense moments of the meeting was when Alina Bonsell, a Republican candidate for State Senate, addressed the panel members and asked if the security team was going to be regularly testing the women for drugs.

When Rivera said the team would not be performing regular drug tests, Bonsell said, "That's why I am running for State Senate," at which point Mason, who was moderating the event, said "Alina, I've warned you about this before," adding that it was against the rules of the evening to be campaigning, causing an eruption from the crowd.

"But you're not advocating for us," an attendee in the crowd shouted at Mason in response.

"I think there was some misunderstanding of what the meeting was last night," Mason told Patch on Tuesday. "The meeting was an opportunity to hear from various people in the community, and I was really trying to act as a moderator and allow that. It's DHS's program, not Community Board 8's."

Why was this location picked?

The City is required to follow a "fair share" policy, which means every district is expected to host some social service facilities so that no one neighborhood is overburdened, Mason said.

Under the Department of Homeless Services' open-ended proposal process, nonprofit providers look for buildings they believe can operate as shelters, then propose those specific sites to the city.

The site also has to pass all required zoning and building safety reviews by the Department of Buildings before it can open and no residents can move in until those approvals are in place.

Ayushi, a parent and resident of East 62nd Street and New York Avenue, said the planned shelter site is an "absolute terrible location to open this building," citing nearby schools, daycare centers and other child-focused businesses.

One Community Board 8 member, Barbara Rudder, said during the meeting she believes the shelter would actually help reduce the homeless population in the neighborhood.

"Not having a shelter will not mean that there won't be homeless," Rudder said. "They will be there. There is, yes, the humanity part, but even the practical part, I urge people to stop and think and work with the community to make this work, because I think we all need it."

Marina Bressler, who attended the public hearing, told Patch she was frustrated that the neighborhood only just found out about the shelter's location.

"I purchased my apartment 10 months ago, and my bedroom window will look directly into the homeless shelter," Bressler said. "I just learned I have no choice in that matter. So my property value is going to go down a lot when this opens. And basically all of my life's investments, everything I've worked really hard for, is just going down the drain."

How will the community be involved in the shelter?

Neighbors will have several ways to give feedback once the site opens, including a Community Advisory Board that will be formed within 30 days of the shelter opening through Community Board 8.

The Community Advisory Board will meet monthly with shelter leadership to address real-time concerns, Mason said.

The Housing Solutions of New York team also pledged to open a public hotline (646-776-5604) and dedicated program email (cpo@hsofny.org), so that neighbors can quickly report quality-of-life or safety issues and receive follow-up.

What questions remain? Email Miranda.Levingston@Patch.com.