Tag: homeless

Videos Show NYC Tearing Down Homeless People’s Tents With Garbage Trucks

Bloomberg had an out-of-sight-out-of-mind policy when it came to homeless people living on the streets and subways. Which was wrong.

De Blasio had a policy that seemed to want people to confront the problem (which is good), but did nothing to actually address the root causes – economics, housing, mental health, safety (for all). Which was also wrong.

I had hoped that Adams would find a middle path, and maybe he will yet. People shouldn’t be living on the street, but erasing people who have no homes, absent an actual policy for giving them homes (not shelters) just puts us at Bloomberg 4.0. Which is still wrong.

Greenpoint is Fancy

Gawker thinks Greenpoint is a neighborhood of “fancy upper class Brooklynites”, and liberal ones at that, that is, like Carroll Gardens now, hypocritically opposing homeless shelters.

Residents Plan to Sue to Block Greenpoint Shelter

The lawsuit backed by the [unnamed] grass roots organization will argue that the city’s Department of Homeless Services illegally circumvented the stringent “fair share” approval process by converting the four-story industrial warehouse without formal Community Board or City Council approval.

20 beds in the facility will be set aside for Greenpoint residents – nowhere near enough to begin to address the local homeless population or their needs.

400 McGuinness – Back to a Shelter

03/10/2011 | 1 Comment

So that rumor going around about a Federal prisons halfway house at 400 McGuinness Boulevard?

Unfounded.

Turns out, it is back to being a (potential) homeless shelter. The Bowery Residents Committee, a Manhattan-based housing and homeless services group, is proposing to put a 200-bed shelter into 400 McGuinness. BRC does not provide any details as to what type of shelter (citywide, serving specific local needs, etc.), so right now that is all we have to go on.

This is, on its face, very similar to the Help USA proposal that generated so much community opposition earlier this year. Hopefully BRC will learn from that experience and bring in a proposal that addresses some of Greenpoint’s very real homeless issues. And hopefully Greenpoint residents will recognize that those isses really do exist and need to be addressed.

400 McGuinness – Now a Federal Case??

03/08/2011 | 1 Comment

Remember the homeless shelter that was supposed to go into 400 McGuinness? Help USA, the group was going to run it, told the city that it was backing out.

So no homeless shelter in Greenpoint. Problem solved, right?

Well not if the latest rumor from tonight’s Community Board 1 meeting is true. Apparently, the site is now being eyed as a halfway house for former Federal convicts.

Developing, I guess…

UPDATE: Here’s the latest.