Community Board 11 Housing Committee Meeting and Public Hearing on Proposed Adult Men’s Homeless Shelter at 2028 White Plains Road
By Robert Press
Thursday night February 3rd was the Community Board 11 virtual Housing Committee meeting followed by an in person Public Hearing on the proposed Adult Single Men’s Homeless Shelter at 2028 White Plains Road, at the corner of Bronxdale Avenue. The community board was notified of the proposal by the de Blasio administration in early October, and decided not to take action until new Mayor Eric Adams took office.
Since this shelter was being proposed by the de Blasio administration, why would the de Blasio administration listen to any of the communities’ arguments not to place the adult men’s shelter where proposed. It was decided to wait until new Mayor Eric Adams was in office to ask the new mayor not to place the men’s shelter where the de Blasio administration proposed it. There was no response from Mayor Adams, as one emergency after another came up until this reporter asked Mayor Adams Sunday January 30th when the mayor visited Jacobi Hospital to thank the staff after an emergency room shooting. I asked Mayor Adams about placing 540 Single adult homeless men into Community Board 11 when that would be up to 75% of CB 11;s homeless responsibility, adding where were the homeless families? Mayor Adams told me that he would check with DHS on the matter.
Thursday February 3rd came with the CB 11 Housing Committee meeting with representatives of DHS and the provider Westhab, a Yonkers based company, with big questions from Queens City Council member Robert Holden about Westhab’s shelter in his district. As the meeting went on Ms. Erin Drinkwater of DHS gave out figures and statements that were later in the meeting proven false with the help of DHS’s own figures. It was said that there were over 16,500 single adult homeless people when in fact the number of single adult homeless men is 12,565 or an average of 210 per each of the 59 NYC community boards. DHS also said that a court case mandated that all homeless be given shelter, when the court decision was all homeless families must be given shelter. It seemed obvious that Mayor Adam and DHS had not spoken.
In the public hearing which began at about 7:40 PM Community Board 11 was blamed for not giving the community notice when the board received it in October of 2021. There were also comments of the board getting a proposed men’s shelter moved from Stillwell Avenue to Popham Street. CB 11 chair Al D’Angelo said that the board did not want to go against the mayor whose administration was proposing the adult men’s homeless shelter for White Plain Road, but decided to wait for the new year and new mayor. CB 11 Chair D’Angelo also said that the board was trying to change the latter two men’s shelters to family shelters, as Community Board 11 has a figure of about 760 homeless people the board is responsible to house in the board area. Chairman D’Angelo is now seeking a lawyer who will work Pro Bono for the community against the city on the single adult men’s homeless shelters.
The virtual Housing Committee meeting was seen on the wall of the room before the public hearing.
Close to 150 people attended the in person public hearing on the proposed Adult Men’s Shelter for 140 men.
Assemblywoman Fernandez agreed with the community around the proposed Adult Men’s Homeless Shelter, but the shelter is a city not state matter.
At the end of the Public Hearing CB 11 Board chair D’Angelo said that maybe the board made a mistake by not informing the public of the proposed site when the board found out. He added that he was waiting for an answer from the Adams administration.
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