78-16 Cooper Avenue will be the site of a 200-bed homeless shelter for single men. (Councilman Robert Holden)
Oct. 25, 2019 By Allie Griffin
Residents are organizing a protest against the City’s plan to open a shelter in Glendale.
The Glendale-Middle Village Coalition is holding a protest at the proposed shelter site at 78-16 Cooper Ave. on Saturday, Nov. 2 at 10 a.m.
Members of the Coalition claim that the shelter–which will serve 200 single men and open early next year–will pose a danger to the surrounding community and nearby schools. Many say that it will be populated by those who were recently incarcerated.
“I don’t even know how they want to call it a homeless shelter,” coalition organizer Kathy Masi told Ridgewood Post. “I think it’s just a stopover for Rikers Island now, with the timing. It’s a halfway house. It’s not a homeless shelter.”
The coalition is also planning to soon file a suit against the City to block the homeless shelter in what is known as an Article 78 proceeding used to overturn state or local policies. The group argues that the City’s study of the site that determined that a shelter should go there was flawed.
“Right now we’re just sorting through all the information and [the filing] should be pretty soon,” Masi said.
The Department of Homeless Services, however, said last week that it has explored all options and the site makes sense. It also noted that there are currently no shelters in Community Board 5, which covers Ridgewood, Middle Village, Maspeth and Glendale.
Masi is expecting a good turn out. Earlier this month hundreds turned out for a town hall event to express outrage about the proposed shelter.
“I hope we have a good turn out, I hope a thousand people show up,” Masi said. “I really do. It’s a terrible thing what they’re doing.”
