We apologize for this lapse in judgment and will work to not repeat this error.

Sincerely,

NP Staff

I think that we are in agreement on the point — as I wrote, that moving the intake center would be very bad for the homeless in NYC, and I am against it. I also agree that most homeless advocacy orgs know that the intake center moving to Bedford-Atlantic will be bad. I’ll take your word that Crown Heights has more than its proportionate share of homeless shelters, fine. But that point is not really conveyed in a survey where one of the choices is “Hell no. I wouldn’t step foot near that rec!” That does not indicate to me ‘our community is shouldering more than our fair burden of social services’ that says to me ‘oooh, scary homeless people’. If the point is to keep the intake center out of CH I don’t think a way to do it is to say that a rec center and intake shelter residents couldn’t coexist in the same huge armory. I second other commenters that this is a very poorly worded survey.

To Brian M: I agree that people should not stereotype the homeless. At the same time, most of us in the neighborhood are not inexperienced with the homeless. As has been reported here, Crown Heights North has 6X the borough average in social service beds, not to mention other social issues that we and our neighbors encounter and work on together. We are very familiar with communities grappling with the circumstances of homelessness, substance abuse, mental illness and other issues. We are not even asking here that the City reduce the current concentration of these kinds of services for people in our neighborhood. I think Most of us are willing to continue to shoulder a disproportionate share of the burden. We are, however, objecting to the City placing its ONLY intake center for all of NYC in our neighborhood ON TOP of the 6x the borough average that we already shoulder. You can be against a dramatic over-concentration of homeless services in one neighborhood without being against services for the homeless. I would even argue that being against an intake center in Crown Heights is actually being FOR better services for the homeless. Most homeless advocacy organizations in NYC, incidentally, agree with this point.

I also agree with the first poster. Majority of the homeless population is in Manhattan so any intake center should be located there.

Crown Heights residents shouldn’t let stereotypes of homeless people poison efforts to improve the neighborhood. I oppose the movement of the intake center to Bedford-Atlantic but only because I know that it is a poor choice for the homeless, and it is being done by the city to make it physically harder for homeless men to access shelter services. I’ll add that Manhattan rec center / shelter is called Fort Washington, and the shelter used to be one of the most notorious in the city (there was a movie made, called The Saint of Fort Washington), and it has been a success. If the rec center is an offer by the city to try to pacify community opposition to moving the intake center, that’s one thing. But a rec center in the armory, in and of itself, would be a great thing.

I’m confused by the idea that Bedford Atlantic being an Assessment shelter means that it wouldn’t work for the Armory to also house a rec center. Fort Washington is a shelter specifically for men with mental illness and chemical addiction, and again, the pairing seems to be working there.