Last fall, the city proposed and pushed through with a plan to open up a homeless shelter on the corner of 66th street and 4th avenue, the same space that was formerly a tile store.
While there are people who support this idea of opening a new homeless shelter, many do not and they made their opinions loud and clear through the streets of 82nd and 3rd avenue – right outside Justin Brannan’s office.
The main claim that protesters are making is that the shelter will be near a high school (HSTAT) as well as a middle school (IS 30).
While people are against the idea of a shelter, they propose that low cost housing should be put into place instead, somewhere not near any schools.
Councilman Brannan stated “These brave souls put their lives on the line to defend our country, and now they’ve fallen on hard times. They should be welcomed with open arms, not angry protests and conspiracy theories.”
However, Brannan does agree with protestors that “6530 Fourth Ave is a not a good spot to build anything.”
People are also unsure on whether the shelter will really be for low income veterans or open for the general public. There is no evidence to support either side.
Seniors Yala Huang and Hanna Li feel like the homeless shelter is not a good idea to open right next to our school.
“I don’t think we should have a homeless shelter right next to our school, given that students will be passing by it on their way to and from school. I feel uncomfortable about the idea.” says Hanna Li.
Similar to Hanna, Yala Huang states that she “understands that it’s for a good cause but nobody knows what the residents of the shelter could do. They are veterans, meaning they’ve been through a lot of bad things- things that really mess you up and impact your mental state. I’m not saying they’re evil and have bad intentions, I know there are good people, but those who are not, I am worried about what they may do.”
On the other hand, other people feel that homeless shelters are necessary. They are necessary because where else are homeless people supposed to go? NYC is one of the biggest cities that have the most homeless people, with approximately 650 shelters. Imagine if we had none. The number of people with no shelter would drastically increase. As inflation continues to increase and peoples incomes are not, the number of homeless people continue to rise. Continuing to build and support shelters are critical to make sure we can get as many people off the streets as possible.
There are many sides to whether we should open a homeless shelter or not, but in the end it comes down to where will all the unfortunate people go?
This proposal was announced in November of 2023 and is expected to follow through to open in late 2025. It is to be funded by an organization called “Volunteers of America”- with history of serving people for 125 years.
