Crown Heights Area's Third New Homeless Shelter Can Open Immediately, Judge Rules

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — After a rowdy court hearing that lasted more than two hours Monday afternoon, a Brooklyn judge ruled that city officials can begin moving more homeless parents and children into a controversial new 132-family shelter at the corner of Rogers Avenue and Crown Street. (Pictured above.)

This will be the third homeless shelter to open within a one-mile radius in the Crown Heights and Prospects Heights area this year — part of an unprecedented citywide plan, revealed by NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio in late February, to stem the city's growing homelessness epidemic by opening 90 new shelters.

The court ruling, issued by Brooklyn Judge Katherine Levine, represents a major win for the de Blasio administration.

Isaac McGinn, spokesman for the mayor's Department of Homeless Services, issued a triumphant statement as soon as Monday's ruling came down, calling it "another positive step forward in our citywide effort to turn the tide on homelessness."

"We are proceeding with moving additional families into 267 Rogers so that they have the same opportunity to stabilize their lives as the families already residing at this location," McGinn said. "We remain committed to continuing to work with the community, as we have throughout this process, to ensure this facility is integrated into the neighborhood and our clients are welcomed as neighbors.”

Crown Heights residents had argued in court that — contrary to the mayor's promise to spread new shelters evenly across the city — their neighborhood was being asked to shoulder more than its fair share.

Indeed, three of the first five shelters announced by the mayor were located in their immediate area: A women's shelter at 174 Prospect Place, a shelter for senior men at 1173 Bergen St. and a family shelter at 267 Rogers Ave.

As of Monday afternoon, all three are open for business.

According to city data, Crown Heights has up to now hosted around 30 homeless shelters and controversial "cluster sites," sleeping nearly 1,800 homeless people. A map created by DNAinfo shows these numbers to be much higher than in other NYC neighborhoods (aside from certain low-income areas of Upper Manhattan and the Bronx).

"I have to bring this up," Rawle Pantaleon, the attorney representing Crown Heights neighbors, said at Monday's hearing. "The community of least resistance, in [city officials'] mind, is a community of color."

"In a low-income black neighborhood," the attorney said, "they feel they can do whatever they want."

Yvonne Reid, 76, a former Crown Heights school principal who lives on the same block as the new Rogers Avenue shelter, agreed with the attorney in an interview outside the courtroom. She accused the city of telling "half truths" and spewing "malarkey" to justify the shelter's particular timing and placement.

On a positive note, though, Reid added: "At least the city knows now that people aren't just going to sit down and take what's handed to them."

Dion Ashman, president of the local block association and a lead organizer on the lawsuit, said he plans to document everything that goes on in the vicinity of the Rogers Avenue shelter — and, if need be, "take it right back to court."

The shelter on Bergen Street likewise faced some pushback from neighbors in court, but was eventually allowed to open by Judge Levine.

The same judge initially sided with residents in the Rogers Avenue case, too: In May, she issued an emergency restraining order that blocked it from opening. (But not before the city had already moved in 10 families — two of which have since moved back out, freaked out by all the publicity their new shelter was getting, according to city lawyers.)

On Monday, though, Levine lifted her prior restraining order.

A visibly exasperated Levine said when announcing her verdict that while she had major concerns about the city's monthlong shelter-opening process, including "severe initial misinformation given to the community," Crown Heights residents hadn't been able to prove the city violated any specific protocol. Nor were residents able, she said, to show the shelter would cause "irreparable harm to the community."

Levine said she does, however, plan to issue a harsh decision in the coming days that critiques the city's handling of this whole thing.

At several points during Monday's court hearing, the clamor of lawyers trying to yell over each other and angry shouts from the audience got so out of hand that a court officer had to intervene. Proceedings were driven into further disarray by the fact that Pantaleon, the neighbors' attorney, was stuck in traffic from JFK Airport to Downtown Brooklyn for more than an hour of the hearing, and had to participate via crackly, hard-to-hear speakerphone.

Meanwhile, Levine became increasingly annoyed at the set of six pro-shelter attorneys — representing the city, the Department of Homeless Services, the developer and the private shelter operator — when they couldn't provide her with nitty-gritty details on the Rogers Avenue facility.

"I'm dumbfounded they don't know" this stuff, Levine said. "And that will be in my decision, too."

This is a developing story. Refresh the page for updates.

Photos by Patch