New York City government plans to establish a homeless shelter on 86th Street in Brooklyn, a move that has sparked strong opposition from the community. As various council members work towards resolving this issue, each decision and action they take is under close scrutiny from protesting residents.
State Senator Yuwen Qu, representing the 17th district, led a delegation of 15 community representatives, including the chair of the 11th Community Board and representatives from the Brooklyn Chinese Association, to City Hall on the afternoon of the 28th. They held a meeting with top officials from the mayor’s office, the city’s homeless services bureau, and the social services bureau to convey the opposition of the Brooklyn Chinatown community to the establishment of a homeless shelter on 86th Street. After the meeting, they visited the proposed site of the shelter to inform the community of the progress made in the meeting.
Senator Qu emphasized that this was the first open dialogue with the city government in over forty days of protests. They demanded direct dialogue between the city government and the community. City officials mentioned the need to report to the higher authority (the mayor) to determine if and when a public hearing would be held. Senator Qu stated that they will continue to press the city government to hold the public hearing.
During the meeting, a member of the community questioned why long-standing protesting State Assemblywoman Coughton and City Councilwoman Chong Wenyi were not invited. Senator Qu explained that since November last year, when her office and the community board learned of the possibility of the homeless bureau building a shelter for 150 single men on 86th Street in Brooklyn, they had repeatedly inquired about the details, but the city government never provided a concrete response. Even after the conflict on July 17th, she called the mayor’s office again to demand an explanation of the plan but received no response.
She pointed out that after the conflict on July 17th, the 62nd Precinct held an emergency community meeting where attendees, including community leaders, representatives from council offices, and other political figures, believed that the mayor should explain the policy to the community. She then urged everyone to unite, make her letter public, collectively protest, demand that the city government respect public opinion, and provide a clear plan and detailed information as soon as possible. She continued to call the city government, ultimately leading to the meeting that took place yesterday.
Sonia Valentin, a community board member of the 62nd Precinct, at the meeting, said that Senator Qu demonstrated strong leadership by leading 15 community and business representatives to meet with city officials to clearly articulate the community’s opposition to the establishment of a shelter locally. Valentin emphasized that the issue is not just the homeless shelter itself; the community is concerned about the potential deterioration of public safety that homeless individuals wandering around could bring and does not want to see property values decline.
President of the Bensonhurst Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Lee Zhipo, revealed to reporters that the two-hour meeting mainly involved the homeless bureau director explaining why they wanted to establish a shelter there. The homeless bureau director stressed that every community has shelters, but Bensonhurst has none, and pointed out that there are homeless individuals in the area, so placing them in shelters is to “improve public safety” in the community.
But Lee Zhipo questioned the city government’s explanation, “If it’s for our benefit, then why have we been protesting here every day? You sit in your office saying beautiful words, we’ve been struggling for over 40 days, have you come to see it yourself?”
Through the meeting, Jiang Xu, the president of the New York Laundry Association, learned that the homeless shelter plan is still in the very early stages and no contracts have been signed yet, “Signing a contract is a very lengthy process. There is no contract for this address yet, so everyone’s protest is absolutely effective.”
Despite the pledge from residents of Brooklyn’s Bensonhurst Chinatown that protests will continue until the “issue is resolved,” Mayor Adams took a firm stance at a press conference on the 27th, stating that the city cannot change management plans just because some areas are unwilling to set up homeless shelters. He further stated, “If people tell me not to build it here but somewhere else, I would say thank you for letting me know about that place because I also need that place. We need all places. We are conducting an analysis.”
While the city government’s attitude remains firm, some believe that community protests could impact developers, just as previous homeless shelter projects in other parts of Brooklyn were ultimately withdrawn due to community protests. Community residents are determined to continue protesting against the 86th Street homeless shelter project until the end.