CB1 will host meeting on homeless shelter TODAY

Community Board 1 and the Department of Social Services will host a virtual public meeting today, Oct. 1, at 6p, on the community board’s remote meeting portal here, to discuss the expansion of the temporary homeless shelter at the Radisson on William Street. You can also get the link here on the CB1 site.

Project Renewal has prepared a fact sheet here, outlining services and security and confirming that 240 men from their current temporary shelter on the UWS will be arriving this month. They are originally from two Project Renewal shelters in the East Village, and the agency said that they are their highest-functioning clients, and that there are no sex offenders in the group. Also none of the men are currently receiving treatment for Covid-19.

The most salient point in it, and one that has not been communicated so far by any of the electeds, is that this is a TEMPORARY shelter to assist with Covid-19 risks in congregate shelters. However, DHS does not know how long that will go on.

The site will have 25 guards and two supervisors on each shift who will cover the inside of and the entrance to the building, and will include the following services for residents:

  • health and wellness checks including covid tests
  • telepsychiatry
  • substance abuse groups and 12-step programs
  • vocational services (group and individual)
  • recreational activities

They also said that they are in the process of setting up a 24-hour hotline for neighborhood complaints.

Board chair Tammy Meltzer also said that the original move-in date of Oct. 5 has been postponed, but a new date has not been announced.

“Like our neighbors, Community Board 1 was stunned by the news announced on Friday night by The Mayor’s office’s plan to change the operation of an emergency COVID-19 quarantine shelter on 52 William Street into a temporary shelter which will accommodate a move of approximately 240 men from their current location at The Lucerne, on the Upper West Side, to William Street in FIDI,” the email said. “It is unclear what this plan does to help the ever-growing vulnerable population already living on the streets within our district, and additionally considers neither the unique challenges of the local built environment nor its resources.”

The board also hopes to have more information then from the city and the shelter operator, Project Renewal.

 

5 Comments

  1. dont just type here, attend this virtual meeting to listen and be heard..

    • Yeah show up and be heard to say not in my backyard.

      Whites Only, preferably rich ones.

      3-4 -millenial women sharing a one-bedroom welcome, too.

      No artists either, unless they were part of the corporate world before they tired of or failed at it, or are selling to the 1%.

      This neighborhood is Pseudo-Trumpland.

      • Another liberal snowflake-

        There is hundreds of low income housing down here, and many minorities. So the answer is reverse gentrification- Billions have been spent on revitalizing the area over 20 years- so lets destroy it furhter.

        We have had homeless shelters down here already before covid-

        Ignorance is bliss- I hope you get your unicorn from Deblasio.

      • My family listened to it and was heartened by the strong sense of outrage by cb1. This is a joke that they are trying to ram this into our area.

        Diblasio is incompetent. Where does all the tax revenue go in this crazy city – the roads are messed up, the subway is a mess, homeless are everywhere.

        Time for new leadership.

        Yea OK NIMBY – please…….

  2. Let’s not leave out the men at the Lucerne have adjusted. Private money has been donated (a lot) and they have jobs contributing to the community as well as a sense of purpose.
    And now what – move them into a hotel that is falling apart and all the good stays behind. The $$ snd jobs do not transfer.
    How will people ever be rehabilitated ?

Comment: