Glendale shelter opens after years of opposition
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Councilmember Robert Holden showed Speaker Corey Johnson the site of a homeless men’s shelter in 2018. After years of local opposition, the shelter opened Friday. Photo courtesy of Holden’s office.
By David Brand
The city officially opened a 200-bed men’s shelter on Cooper Avenue in Glendale Friday, following a years-long battle with local residents and lawmakers.
The Cooper Rapid Rehousing Center — a shelter for men with jobs or enrolled in job training programs —opened inside a vacant brick warehouse despite a legal challenge from residents of Glendale and nearby Middle Village, as well as intense opposition from the local councilmember, Robert Holden.
“We look forward to welcoming and supporting more neighbors in need at this location over the next few weeks,” Department of Homeless Services spokesperson Isaac McGinn said in a statement. “Working together with service provider Westhab and the community, through collaborative support and compassion, we’re confident that we will make this the best experience it can be for these individuals as they get back on their feet.”
The site became the first permanent shelter in Queens Community District 5, which had been one of only nine community districts in the city without a shelter. There are 59 community districts in New York City.
At least 227 New Yorkers staying in DHS shelters provided a most recent address within the district as of Nov. 30, 2019, according to agency data.
A total of 58,863 New Yorkers, including 12,504 single men, stayed in DHS shelters on Wednesday, according to the agency's most recent daily census report.
A couple from Middle Village held signs equating the shelter to jails because they thought people released from city jails would fill homeless shelters. Eagle photo by David Brand.
The specter of the shelter prompted backlash from neighborhood residents at public forums and rallies along Cooper Avenue. Some articulated concerns about where the shelter residents would go during the day — the area is far from a subway — and questioned the city’s spending on temporary shelters rather than affordable housing.
Others simply demeaned and discriminated against people experiencing homelessness.
“These homeless men are ‘tranks, lobos and zipheads’ … They’re drug addicts and sexual offenders,” shouted one woman, quoting a line from “Back to the Future,” at a public hearing at Christ the King High School in October. “Put them in a separate area away from society. They should be locked away forever and out of sight permanently.”
Another woman went even further, eliciting citywide attention for her threatening message.
“I hope someone is going to burn the place down,” she shouted into the microphone.
Holden, a former civic association leader, organized rallies and rallied opponents of Mayor Bill de Blasio and the city’s homeless policies to denounced the Glendale plan. Holden’s successful 2017 campaign for Council was fueled by opposition to city homeless policy, particularly shelter siting and the use of commercial hotels to house New Yorkers experiencing homelessness, including a site in Maspeth.
He pledged to sue the city to stop the project.
“This project stinks to high heaven,” Holden told officials from the Department of Homeless Services at a November hearing. “There will be lawsuits — I promise. Because this is inappropriate. This is not the right location.”
A judge tossed the lawsuit earlier this month.
Other community members say they support people experiencing homelessness and hope opponents of the shelter will also advocate for affordable housing development and solutions to poverty.
“Generally, I'm disappointed in community leaders who have fanned the flames of intolerance by spreading misinformation about the conditions of the site and character of people who fall on hard times and find themselves insecurely housed and in need of seeking shelter,” said former Queens Community Board 5 member Toby Sheppard Bloch.
“I think it's additionally troubling that many of these same leaders have consistently opposed increasing housing density, transit-oriented development and other affordable housing policies that would have increased our access to safe and affordable housing,” he added.
