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.
The Greenpoint Gazette’s Jeff Mann nails it:
The tragedy strengthened the calls of many Greenpointers to establish a shelter in the neighborhood to deal with its unique homeless population… Greenpoint’s indigenous homeless population consists, for the most part, of Polish speaking, chronic alcoholics. Unfortunately, the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) does not offer a solution for people who need permanent housing, alcohol counseling and a Polish speaking staff. In fact, their alcoholism often disqualifies them from housing, raising fears that the neighborhood could see more fatalities as winter approaches.
The recent suicide in McGolrick Park cruelly emphasizes the crux of the issue over the proposed homeless shelter at 400 McGuinness Boulevard – Greenpoint has a homeless population that needs help, but the help they need would not be available at the homeless shelter that the City wants to put in the neighborhood.
Things seem to be heating up over 400 McGuinness Boulevard, the loft building that keeps trying to be a homeless shelter. The Brooklyn Eagle reported last week that a “hotel developer” had acquired the property. The quotation marks are there because, while the developer does build hotels, he also builds a lot of homeless shelters – something Aaron Short of the Post reported on over a month ago.
Now, Short is reporting that City Comptroller John Liu is, at the request of Council Member Steve Levin, investigating the relation of the Department of Homeless Services with this particular developer and others. Levin’s contention is that DHS is using third-party developers to acquire properties for use as homeless shelters, a process that would allow DHS to circumvent the public review process for such property acquisitions. The developer, for its part, says that it has no “contractual relationship with DHS”. Liu’s office is promising to “hold the Department of Homeless Services accountable to a fair, transparent and equitable siting process”
[Via The Real Deal]
Aaron Short on the link between the Greenpoint homeless shelter and the publicly-traded company with a not-so-savory history of influencing public officials. That history includes a large fine for bribing two State Assembly members.
