The frustrated residents grilled representatives from the mayor’s office, the city’s Human Resources Administration and CORE Services, the group that would operate the shelter, saying the area is already oversaturated with shelters and asking why it needs to be placed in their neighborhood. | Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office | Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office Crown Heights residents denounce de Blasio shelter proposal

Mayor Bill de Blasio's push to open a homeless shelter for 106 men on Bergen Street in Brooklyn was met with outrage from local residents at a raucous two-hour meeting on Saturday, with several saying they would start a petition and challenge the proposal in court.

The combative, standing-room-only meeting with more than 300 local residents came as the city grapples with a growing homelessness crisis that has seen the city's shelter population spike to roughly 60,000 residents.


Crown Heights residents opposed to the shelter objected to what they said was a closed-door planning process by the de Blasio administration and a lack of transparency in dealing with the community and local elected officials. According to a Community Board 8 official, the city notified the board on Feb. 15. The shelter is slated to open on March 22.

The frustrated residents grilled representatives from the mayor’s office, the city’s Human Resources Administration and CORE Services, the group that would operate the shelter, saying the area is already oversaturated with shelters and asking why it needs to be placed in their neighborhood.

“There are homeless individuals in every community district in the city of New York, and there are going to be shelters in every community district,” said Lincoln Restler, a representative from the mayor’s office.

“For decades, and even at the beginning of the de Blasio administration, shelters have opened without any notice. ... That’s how Bloomberg and Koch did things,” Restler added. “I can appreciate the 30-day feels too short of time. We’re trying our best to get meaningful input from the community. ... Nobody wants to open shelters, but the reality is there are vulnerable New Yorkers who need a quality place to live.”

Daniel Tietz, HRA's chief special services officer, said even though the city is creating affordable housing units across the city, temporary homeless shelters are still needed to combat the growing crisis.

“We agree that there has been a longstanding issue with how shelters got sited, and we acknowledged that it’s going to take some time for us to fix that,” Tietz said, vowing to residents that homeless shelters will be evenly distributed.

Residents are also concerned about security at the site and demanded the city not allow sex offenders at the shelter.

“You have children who are walking home and who go home by themselves, who take home their siblings by themselves. We already have the men’s shelter over here,” said one parent, referring to a 350-bed men’s shelter at the nearby Bedford-Atlantic Armory on Atlantic Avenue.

Tietz said none of the residents of this shelter will be sex offenders.

CORE Services president Jack Brown defended the mayor’s plan, but said he understands residents’ outrage. He stressed that the men, who are over 50 years old with no mental health issues or histories of sex offenses, will not cause any disturbance. However, he added that security guards will patrol the facility frequently.

“I get it,” Brown said. “But these men are coming from fractured families. If we are able to work with these men, to get them back on their feet, we also help the same families that have been fractured. We can’t deal with homeless children and homeless mothers without dealing with homeless men.”

The meeting came four days after Mayor de Blasio unveiled an ambitious plan to build or open 90 new homeless shelters across the city over the next five years. The mayor wants to open 20 new shelters in 2017 and 20 more the following year. He said his plan will allow the city to close 360 cluster shelter sites and commercial hotel locations. During his announcement, de Blasio also said he expects a certain amount of community opposition as he implements with his shelter plan. He promised he would work harder to communicate with local communities, but said that “doesn’t mean there’s going to be peace and love all the time.”

Councilman Robert Cornegy, who represents the area, told POLITICO New York this week that there are already 15 shelters currently in his district. At Saturday’s meeting, Cornegy said the area has a residential block of limestone homes and expressed concern that a shelter could lower their market value.

It is unclear whether the shelter opening the shelter can still be halted or stopped. A number of residents asked how they can begin legal proceedings. Cornegy said there has to be a collective effort and is open to support the community's will.

“There’s a petition process that needs to start with the necessary backing. I love my community without question, but I have in the past jumped out the window on an issue the community asked me to do, and I stood by myself,” he said. “There’s a long, drawn-out tedious process that has to happen and it starts with a petition.”

Asked about residents’ plan to challenge the administration’s proposal, mayoral spokeswoman Jaclyn Rothenberg told POLITICO New York in a statement that, “There are homeless people in every community, which is why we all must do our part to help our neighbors."

"As the mayor outlined this past week, to meet immediate needs and with a goal of reducing the overall footprint of the system, we are getting out of 360 current shelter facilities and replacing them with 90 new, safe shelters," she added.

The Bergen Street shelter is one of the three that is opening soon in Crown Heights. Another meeting about the shelter will be held before the opening, officials said. But the date is yet to be determined.