Throngs of demonstrators marched via the usually sleepy streets of Sheepshead Bay to protest plans for a household homeless shelter — as locals claimed the town pulled a bait and change to get the mission OK’d.
A protracted caravan of automobiles snaked via about 20 blocks of the Brooklyn neighborhood Sunday whereas crowds carried indicators studying “Affordable housing not shelters” and “Keep our kids safe! No shelters near playgrounds or schools!”
On the middle of the difficulty is plans for a 169-family homeless shelter at 2134 Coyle St., a web site initially accepted as an inexpensive housing property in 2022. However after a developer backed out, metropolis officers greenlighted plans for the shelter in 2023 with out resident enter.
The marchers began their stroll on the shelter web site and had been joined by group activist and mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa and different candidates for native workplace.
“As you can see the community is outraged. The mayor refuses to come and talk to the community. None of the other mayoral candidates will come here and take a stand,” Sliwa mentioned.
“So I’m leading a demonstration against this shuffle. We want affordable housing. That’s what this community was told and they agreed to it, and then the last minute switch, they want affordable housing, no shelters,” he added.
Native storekeepers and residents lined the streets because the caravan filed previous, as thoroughfares grew to become blocked and jammed up by the crowds.
Many marchers characterised the town’s system as damaged and a doable risk to the native peace.
“This is a great community. There is like older people who settle here. It’s a beautiful community. There’s parks and everything,” mentioned 21-year-old Sheepshead Bay resident Fruma Feldman.
“I do imagine homeless individuals ought to have a spot to go, however I used to be speaking to my dad earlier and he advised me that he has homeless mates which might be scared to be in these shelters due to how harmful the opposite individuals which might be there are, it’s not even protected for lots of homeless individuals to be there. So, with that being mentioned, I don’t assume it ought to be right here.
“When the illegal migrants moved in at Floyd Bennett Field, my dad’s car got robbed, and the stores nearby were like closing everything,” Fruma added, referring to quite a few reviews of elevated crime and panhandling after a sprawling tent-city was opened to deal with migrants close by in 2024. “There was armed robberies, and we don’t need any more of that in this neighborhood. It was just scary for the community.”
Dimple Willabus, who’s working for the native District 46 council, known as on native officers to take heed to residents — cautioning that building may start on the shelter any day.
“This is really to pressure the elected official, and to be very specific, the city councilmember so that she acts,” the 46-year-old mentioned, referring to Council member Mercedes Narcisse. “No, don’t come out and speak to the people, don’t do PR stunts. Clean this up. This is a can of spilled milk and it is just drying up the sidewalk, and she’s trying to scoop it up.”
Sunday’s march was simply the most recent in a long-running protest in opposition to the shelter plans.
Dozens of residents had spent greater than a month camped out in tents outdoors of the shelter web site across the clock. Narcisse visited the encampment earlier in April and voiced assist for the trigger, in line with the Canarsie Courier.
