Neighbors Spar Over Douglaston Homeless Shelter Proposal

DOUGLASTON, QUEENS — The conversation unfolding in and around Douglaston in the weeks since city officials announced plans for a new homeless shelter has much in common with the now-familiar thread of fervent backlash that trails such proposals across New York City: There was no community input, the location is inappropriate, the shelter would increase crime and quality-of-life issues.

In nearby Little Neck, a flyer started circulating that depicted a "caricature of a homeless woman" and urged neighbors to complain about the shelter proposal, according to Queens Community Board 11 Chair Mike Budabin. A Change.org petition against the shelter called the location "concerning."

Three virtual public meetings hosted by Queens Community Board 11 since the proposal was made public in late December, two of which were devoted specifically to the shelter, have each drawn more than a hundred attendees.

What unfolded during the board's regular monthly meeting Monday night in some ways broke with the anti-homeless, not-in-my-backyard rhetoric that has tinged argument after argument that the New York City Department of Homeless Services should not open a shelter in a given community.

After an hours-long discussion, the board decided to ask the city to reduce the density of the proposed shelter, which one member called "inhumane," and pushed back on a vocal faction demanding the shelter open in a different location.

"When it comes to location in particular and making that part of our argument at this point, to me, what that’s saying is, frankly, not in my backyard,” Budabin said. "You want to be a great community? You got to do things you don’t always want to do."

The community board's actions may have little bearing on the eventual shelter, which is scheduled to open late this year at 243-02 Northern Blvd., in a building previously occupied by Pride of Judea Community Services.

The property is owned by a private company, the investment firm Bayrock Capital LLC, and will be leased to the city and managed by the nonprofit Samaritan Village. The community board is not required to weigh in.

Mayor Bill de Blasio's "Turning the Tide" plan for addressing homeless New Yorkers calls for communities to get 30 days' notice about new shelters and at least one community meeting. Before that, according to City Limits, neighbors typically found out only after shelters had opened.

Citing the 30-day standard, the Department of Social Services pushed back on complaints by elected officials and Northeast Queens residents that they were not notified or engaged before the plans came together, Patch previously reported.

In response to complaints about the shelter's density, spokesperson Neha Sharma said only that all city shelters must meet New York State requirements for shelter size and capacity.

The Douglaston shelter will have a capacity of 72 beds — all for women over 50 — organized in dorms of eight to 12, according to Department of Social Services and Samaritan Village officials.

Community District 11 is among three Queens districts that have no homeless shelters, according to the agency, and some residents maintain that it isn't an appropriate spot for one.

To support the argument, some said the area is a public transportation desert — even though the shelter location is across the street from a Q12 bus stop, down the street from a stop for the QM3 express bus to Midtown Manhattan and nine minutes' walking from the Long Island Rail Road's Douglaston station.

Others complained that the shelter would be close to the Divine Wisdom Catholic Academy and St. Anastasia Church and suggested, without citing evidence, that shelter residents would bring crime and drugs to the area.

"My wellbeing comes first, and this shelter will affect my wellbeing," one neighbor, Marcelle, said at the Monday community board meeting

Asked for comment on these complaints, a Department of Social Services spokesperson responded in an email to Patch, "What about it? Is there a specific insinuation being made by you or by neighbors about threats posed by these senior women?"

The agency requires shelter residents to "refrain from acts which endanger the health or safety of oneself or others or that substantially and repeatedly interfere with the orderly operation of the shelters," or risk getting kicked out of the shelter, although exceptions exist for behavior that is due to a physical or mental impairment.

Community board member Ben Turner urged his peers to see the shelter as a matter of what the community can do for homeless women, rather than how the shelter might affect neighbors.

"We have to remember not to get more upset about a homeless shelter than we are about the issue of homelessness itself," he said. "We have to open our hearts to people who are less fortunate than we are."