What Radiofree Bay Ridge Didn’t Tell Bay Ridge About Homelessness in Bay Ridge…
Yesterday, Councilman Brannan said Mayor de Blasio failed the city and failed our homeless population in NYC. (See here) Brannan wrote this:
The Mayor has been fighting Covid-19 for the past year and a half, so he didn’t get around to homelessness! He also had to fight against the governor for awhile as well. One person can only do so much, but there are 51 Council representatives. There are fifteen Council members in Brooklyn who could have stepped up and pooled resources for Brooklyn, but that wasn’t their focus.
Radiofree Bay Ridge (RFBR) recently had a podcast about homelessness. I put it on while I was cleaning and listened to the whole thing. They shouldn’t record while they are angry because it makes it hard to listen to. But I did find three interesting things from their show:
a) Thirty-eight percent of families that were homeless in our area were homeless due to domestic violence. (Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights are at the top of the list for this)
b) Bay Ridge had 100 – 120 people in a NYC homeless shelter. When people filled out the form at a shelter, they used 11209 as their last place of residence.
c) One out of ten children’s families at PS 170 experienced housing instability (some families are not homeless because they are living with family and friends) ** This is the reason why we should be discussing homelessness in our area. If people knew this, they would immediately help because no one wants to see a child suffering.
RadioFree Bay Ridge left out a lot of important information that prevents funding to help families in need.
1) Oswald Feliz, a NYC Councilman in the Bronx, took office on April 15, 2021. In June, Oswald funded NYCHA developments in his area with 4.5 million dollars. (See here) He had only been a Councilman for three months and realized he needed to fund housing for people. (Listen to his video here)
2) While we don’t have a NYCHA development in Bay Ridge, we have a large senior population. Seniors need affordable housing. They have done their part to build this community and we should make sure they are able to live here. They have been asking for affordable housing for years because it is hard to make ends meet. Covid-19 made some people’s situation less stable (through no fault of their own). Some seniors, who do freelance work, have not been able to work for 18 months. This would have been a great year to fund senior housing.
How much money did Councilman Brannan put towards housing or seniors development? ZERO.
Councilman Brannan did not adapt well to the pandemic and he spent money the same way it has always been spent. While he doesn’t need to be an expert on homelessness or funding, the way he distributed money should have been significantly different than other years. Thirteen million was given to six schools (See here). NYS already fully-funded schools this year (Source) and the Federal government also provided funding for schools, so this should have been a year to fund housing.
Not-for-profit groups in our community received a lot of funding from Councilman Brannan this year. That funding should have been cut way back (some of the groups are receiving from multiple sources). Covid has limited the amount of people interacting with these groups, so budgets should have been cut this year. Preparation for the future should have been the focus of this years budget. When New York State stops paying rent, what happens to the people who are can’t pay their rent? Families are still going to need help.
3) Each year, NYC counted homeless people through the Hope Count Event. When people are down on their luck they don’t want to be counted. If the people counting the homeless were bringing the homeless people coffee, soup, warm socks and toiletries, it would be alright. But “the event” is to count homeless in each borough – not to help them like neighbors. “The counters” believe that this will help the homeless, but it doesn’t do anything for them.
The Hope Count is not beneficial because each year someone says, “There are less homeless in NYC than there were the year before.” We all see there are more homeless people living on the streets. Strangely the The Hope Count used the city’s money to purchase T-shirts, sweatshirts and even jackets to give to “the counters,” as if Hope Count is a concert that people need a memento from.
Below is the info from January 2020 Hope Count (See Here) In 2021, there was a 38% drop – (See here)
“In 2020, 122,926 different homeless adults and children slept in the New York City municipal shelter system. This includes more than 39,300 homeless children.” (Source)
4) RFBR talked about a SRO from years ago that no longer exist. (SRO – Single Room Occupancy – a type of housing that was available to people on a limited income). Radiofree Bay Ridge didn’t mention any of the current SROs that were placed quietly in our area in the last few years when Gentile and Golden were leaders in the community. No elected representative or member of Community Board 10 spoke about the SROs. Neighbors realized they had a SRO on their block when there were repetitive problems coming from buildings and they shared that information with other neighbors.
5) This year, Councilman Brannan gave $608,000 to Maimonides Hospital, rather than putting it towards housing the homeless in our area. Lobbyists were able to target several council members and secure money from each of them. (Source) The hospital did well prior to Covid 19, so that money could have been used to help our community.
6) Last year, Justin Brannan put a million dollars towards an office renovation for a building not owned by NYC. (Source) No one knows what type of renovation was needed as there was neve a press release or any information about this.
Our community owns this building on 86th Street that is empty and could have been used during Covid-19, if money was used for its upkeep.
7) Radiofree Bay Ridge said that the Mayor will place homeless shelters in areas where there are homeless people. In August 2020, NYC sent homeless men from Manhattan to Hotel Indigo on Duffield Street in Downtown Brooklyn. Brooklyn has a lot of homeless people, why would people from Manhattan be transferred to Brooklyn? People who live in that Downtown Brooklyn area noted a change in their neighborhood when another hotel on the same block as Hotel Indigo (Aloft Hotel) was changed to a homeless shelter. (See here)
“A large majority of street homeless New Yorkers are living with mental illness or other severe health problems.” (Source) NYC has experts on this and yet they aren’t providing support to all of the shelters. If people are getting the support and the hotels are being maintained, other people in that area should not notice a change in the area. Mental health services have to be provided to those who live in shelters.
8) Radiofree Bay Ridge didn’t think church beds were a solution to homelessness. There is a 200 bed shelter for women on Tillary Street in Brooklyn. Many women don’t feel safe going there. (See here) In Bay Ridge, there are several small churches that could use the income and people in our area who could use a warm place to sleep this Winter. Small places would probably provide better support and kindness to people, so we should be seeking out these places in our community.
9) Councilman Justin Brannan repeatedly said a hotel was not going on 86th Street next to Nathan’s. If a hotel has not been set for this property, why do we see movement on the Department of Buildings site?
The plants for a six-story hotel with a cellar is shown with a zoning approval date of April 16, 2021. (See here) Representatives need to be transparent on this. There are no press releases or article about this building’s zoning approval.
This information is from the NYC Department of Buildings website here.
Put in Block: 6055 Lot: 21 on the second line like this:
People worry that these small hotels will become homeless shelters because that is what has been done in Sunset Park.
10) We didn’t see Senator Andrew Gounardes share a press release about his vote on the Housing Our Neighbors with Dignity Act. (See here) Assemblywoman Mathylde Frontus also supported this bill (See here) Why the bill isn’t a bad idea, the silence on the vote and lack of information will make people upset.
11) A homeless shelter next to a school is never a good idea. A hotel near a school is also another terrible idea. A developer doesn’t care about the location because they don’t live in the area and their children won’t be at that school.
12) Justin Brannan gave $50,000 of our budget this year to NY Law School to teach people about redistricting. (Source – Page 100 – 7th Line) It is not the job of the New York City to do this. NY State already has an office dedicated to this topic and there are people who have been hired to teach about this. That’s $55,000 that we are not using to help families in our area with rent. Instead, the money was used to “play politics.” We are in a pandemic and money can’t be wasted like this.
In 2020, Brannan funded the Brooklyn Bridge Park with $15,000 from our district funds (see below). Stephen Levin is the councilman for that area, why didn’t he fund that project? There was no press release and Brannan didn’t say our tax dollars were going to another district.
12) Finally, RFBR had a lot of information in their podcast, but they forgot about the people in Bay Ridge. Bay Ridge has taken care of homeless individuals for years – you may not know every story, but there are a lot of great people in this community. There was the couple who housed the woman living in her car. There was the elderly man who owned two dogs and everyone in the area knew how he liked his coffee (when he passed away his neighbors looked out for his dogs). These business owners and others like them have always helped because they live here too. There is a general concern for the well-being of people in this neighborhood. Neighbors will hook people up when they know there is a need.
Housing the homeless will only happen in communities where there are leaders like Oswald Feliz, who understand the importance of using money towards the homeless and senior citizens, who need affordable housing. It will only happen in communities where special interest groups expect leaders to do their right thing, instead of focusing on developers and making bills for lobbyists.
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Hugs,
marlene
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