Crown Heights Group Still Doesn't Want Homeless Center
Crown Heights residents continue to fight the mayor’s plan to move the intake center for homeless men from Manhattan to the Bedford-Atlantic Armory. Crown Heights Revitalization Movement (CHRM, pronounced “charm”) organizer Rachel Pratt said in an email about their planned June 1 rally, “At this point, we believe that we will be joined by Borough…
Crown Heights residents continue to fight the mayor’s plan to move the intake center for homeless men from Manhattan to the Bedford-Atlantic Armory. Crown Heights Revitalization Movement (CHRM, pronounced “charm”) organizer Rachel Pratt said in an email about their planned June 1 rally, “At this point, we believe that we will be joined by Borough President Marty Markowitz, City Council Member Letitia James, NYS Assemblymen Karim Camara and Hakeem Jeffries, and NYS Senator Eric Adams.” The massive armory at Bedford and Atlantic Avenue is already a temporary shelter that sleeps 350 homeless single men, and is known as among the worst in the system. In private, local residents told us they’re already overwhelmed by the crowds of homeless men who regularly congregate on the sidewalks surrounding the shelter, especially in the early mornings when the building is evacuated for cleaning. “I’m not exactly sending my kids out to play on the street,” said one. The community district has six times the average residential social services beds at 116 per 100 acres, the highest in the borough.
CHRM’s website also voices concerns about increased street homelessness (60 percent of the city’s homeless live in Manhattan, not exactly a quick jaunt to Crown Heights), more bus traffic and worse conditions for the homeless. A source close to the mayor’s office told us the goal is to make the intake center more difficult to reach so fewer men would turn to the shelter system, in hopes that they would instead stay with friends or family. The source said the city’s most at-risk homeless population tends to avoid shelters, and the mayor would rather use the money spent on shelters for permanent housing. We were told each bed cost $35,000 annually. But Patrick Markee of the Coalition for the Homeless told us the annual cost of shelter for a single homeless adult is $18,000, and $33,000 for a family. “Last year when the City closed a large shelter for homeless men NONE of the savings was re-directed to permanent housing for homeless individuals.”
Markowitz Eyeing Citywide Run, But Still Brooklyn-centric [Daily News]
Crown Heights Doesn’t Want Homeless Intake Center [Brownstoner]
Mayor’s Intake Plan Misguided [Coalition for the Homeless]
we can house them in the new stadium when that opens up….sort of like a mini-Katrina…and it will be closer to more amenities since it is located downtown.
Bottomline is that it is unacceptable; there are too many of these adult homes/special needs homes/ drug rehab homes /homeless shelters in our neighborhoods as it is. This will stagnate the positive growth and transformation that has been underway in CH North for several years.
Montrose and Rachel, I completely agree with both of you and will be at the rally and on the walk next weekend. It is up to the community and the concerned citizens that compose it to make the city accountable. I don’t think any of us want to see the shelter close but I think all of us want to see the conditions improved (I have never understood why the occupants are pushed out during the day. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have them attend counseling sessions to get them back on their feet in another part of the armory during this time?) Homeless shelters do not solve the homeless problem. I am willing to bet that those men don’t want to live there but they have fallen down and are struggling to get back up and need help. Let’s give it to them. Turning the Armory into an intake center and shoving hundreds more beds in there is a terrible idea. Its just going to make a bad situation worse and the current inhabitants are going to get less attention not more. Let’s all rally to oppose the expansion of the Armory but let’s also rally to make the shelter that is already there a better one.
P.s. I also agree with the comments above about this area having a disproportionate number of shelters and that Mayor Bloomberg is dead wrong on this issue. I would also like to remind all the Brooklynites in the house that (according to the 2000 census) Brooklyn is the most populous of NYC’s boroughs (there are at least 2,465,326) which means we have the power to fight and win provided we care enough.
10:02, point well taken. No sanctimony detected, just concern. I agree. Thanks.
Montrose Morris
This blog makes me so sad. Man this is depressing.
10:02 here. I am sorry if I sounded holier-than-thou or condescending. That wasn’t my intention.
10:02-why blame Montrose for the problem? He’s one of the few posters who contributes anything of substance and even when replying to the troll- who 1:44 am obviously is- at least you learn something. I think you can drop the holier-than-thou, condescending attitude.
that said i do agree about the tone of the site and that registration is needed. Unfortunately the registration system brownstoner uses is not a very good one since it only takes an extra space to allow someone to create a user name that looks like a legitimate one. this site could also use a mediator who tracks the threads- many other sites do this and it would have stopped a number of attacks, which included posting personal information, on the site.
“I have stated my reasons for opposing the Armory”
You’ve paid lip service to a few mundane NIMBYisms.
“I’ve told you I did not make that comment about going to hell.”
Good grief, do you actually intend to persist in this excuse? Unbelievable.
“For some reason, your problem with the Armory is with me, not the supporters of the rally, not with CHRM, not with local politicians, just me.”
In fact I suspect that I would like you were we to meet in person. I like most people. However, I do not appreciate your behavior on this blog and several others have voiced the same sentiment. Fortunately, people are complicated and someone who behaves like a jackass on a blog like this can be surprisingly polite when they’re right in front of you and no longer anonymous. ‘Tis a good thing, I think.
“An intake center for the homeless of Manhattan in Crown Heights is a bad idea, and I plan on opposing it, as is my right, whether you agree or not”
Yes of course you can do whatever you want to do, whether it’s opposing the intake center or crouching down by the side of the road and rubbing gravel into your hair. It’s entirely up to you.
test
Montrose, I hope I’m not out of line, but may I say something? I live in Crown Heights, love the neighborhood and enjoy many of your informative posts. I think I’ve learned a lot about my own neighborhood from you. At the same time, it pains me to see you drawn into juvenile games of tit-for-tat like the one above. I know it is hard to resist when people come on here and behave like absolute jerks and idiots, but I wish you would resist because I really think this kind of malicious back-and-forth is beneath you–and beneath pretty much anyone, to be honest.
It’s none of my business, of course, and this is all I intend to say. I just wanted to share these thoughts with you and now, I’m done!
Speaking for myself, the dialogue on this site has degenerated to such a degree that I don’t know how much longer I’ll bother to read it. Lots of threads start out being very interesting only to sink into a quagmire of vicious insults, sexist and/or racist comments, and so on. And this particular thread, with someone posting phony dates for a rally, reaches a new low. Mr. B, I belong to a couple of community organizations. The next time one of them schedules a meeting or other event, I hope you won’t promote it. I also think you need to do something to “raise the bar” for this site. To be honest, I think you need to require registration, but I know we’ve been down that road before and aren’t likely to travel it again.
Sigh.