10 City Hall protest for College Pt. shelter plan
QUEENS WEEKLY, JAN. 20, 2019
Residents storm Manhattan demanding city DHS come up with alternate location for homeless facility
BY MARK HALLUM
The weather couldn’t
stop scores of College
Point residents from making
the long trip to Lower
Manhattan to protest a
proposed homeless shelter
in the community.
The protesters gathered
on the steps of City
Hall on Jan. 13 demanding
that the city Department
of Homeless Services
come up with another
way to help homeless residents
in Queens.
The agency has proposed
opening a shelter
for up to 200 men at a site
located at 127-03 20th Ave.
For months, College
Point residents, including
Jennifer Shannon, have
said the plan simply doesn’t
work for the community.
At Sunday’s protest,
Shannon repeated her
concerns that the community
offers little public
transportation and
medical services — both
of which are necessary to
accommodate the homeless
population that the
shelter would serve.
“College Point really
is on the most northern
tip of Queens, and there
really is nothing there.
To get to any service,
it’s 45 minutes,” Shannon
said, referring to the
three-to-five unreliable
bus routes available.”
One concern Shannon
voiced was that the residents
at the facility will not be allowed
to stay in the building
during the day and that medical
assistance is sparse.
City Department
of Homeless Services
spokesman Isaac McGinn
denied the claim, explaining
that this is a
misconception that arose
from the fact that residents
are sent into common
areas of the facility
to engage in job development
and other programs
while sleeping quarters
are cleaned by staff.
Shannon admitted
that DHS had not said
this is its policy, but that
it had been in contact
with other communities
who claimed homeless
residents were turned
out during the day.
“If we get sick in College
Point, we have to go
to Bayside, we have to go
to Whitestone — we’ve
got no services,” Shannon
said. “No train, no
precinct, no hospital.
So how are they helping
these men?”
But like many other
homeless shelter facilities
established by the city,
McGinn confirmed that
the College Point shelter
will have medical services
provided on-site as well as
mental health assistance.
“Our only thing is this is
just a really horrible location,”
Shannon Said. “This
is not a NIMBY thing, it’s
just not safe. It’s just not
safe to put 200 men transitioning
– many of them,
probably most of them from
prison – in the middle of a
community surrounded by
our schools.”
Michael Deng, who
also helps organize the
opposition to the shelter,
echoed Shannon in
the claim that those opposing
the College Point
shelter had been villainized
by those in favor,
Children became the centerpiece of a protest against a
homeless shelter slated for College Point at a City Hall
rally.
College Point residents rally against the proposed shelter
outside City Hall.
College Point residents rally against the proposed shelter
outside City Hall.
which they viewed as an
unfair assessment.
“We’re talking about a
very small number of people
who go through homelessness
versus a community
of 80,000 people,
28,000 households, more
than 5,000 school kids,”
Deng said. “It couldn’t be
a worst site. Five schools
in the middle of the commercial
center of College
Point. We’re not against
homeless, we have our
own homeless we are taking
care of.”
There are currently
an estimated 63,000 to
70,000 homeless individuals
in the city, a situation
which has been treated as
a crisis by Mayor Bill de
Blasio. The College Point
location is slated to be
another addition in his
Turning of the Tide on
Homelessness initiative.
College Point residents have been agitated by the realization that their community would be receiving 200 homeless men
without notification from the city. Photos by Mark Hallum