Once again, New York residents join in protest against the installation of shelters for migrants and homeless people near their neighborhoods.
A new ‘shelters’ proposed by the municipality, at 2501 and 86th Street and 25th Avenue in Gravesend, in south central Brooklyn, generated the fury of neighbors, mostly Asian communities, who refuse to allow the emergency center be installed near their school communities.
It is a building that would house 150 single men, some supposedly with a history of mental problems.
“We have already seen what happens around shelters for migrants and homeless people. Nobody really knows who is arriving. We are going to analyze in depth what has happened in the neighborhoods where these shelters have been installed,” Omar Chang, one of the protesters, told El Diario.
Omar relates that the experiences of neighbors from other towns have been almost a “nightmare.”
“Immediately everything turns into chaos. We understand that you want to compassionately help these helpless people, but not at the expense of the safety of those of us who live in quiet communities. The reports are about drugs, violence and robberies. It is not discrimination. We are all migrants. It’s about common sense,” she stressed.
These types of protests have worsened in the last two years in all counties of the Big Apple.
60,000 signatures
Likewise, Councilwoman Susan Zhuang, a radical opponent of this plan, joined the demonstration, which grew so much that it surrounded a large part of the square that borders the Mayor’s Office.
“Thousands of our community members came to say no to the construction of a new human warehouse. We do not want homeless shelter in this location, which is next to our schools, daycares and senior centers. “This is a reckless and dangerous decision by the City,” said Councilwoman Zhuang.
A petition against the project has already garnered more than 60,000 signatures.
Municipal sources warn that it is simply a sustained action to look for spaces in the face of the immense migration and homeless crisis.
“We have listened to the neighbors and their concerns. “We are always open to proposals from New Yorkers,” the spokesperson said.
Starting in the summer of 2022, New York City began receiving tens of thousands of new asylum seekers, many of whom sought refuge in the city.
As a report from the Municipal Comptroller’s Office highlights, “the combination of these factors has caused the shelter population to skyrocket in the last two years.”
Right now, more than 146,000 people sleep in the municipal shelter system.
At the end of 2023, the city began imposing 30- and 60-day limits on shelter stays for many of these people, many of whom, unable to find a place to live within that period, remain on the streets and join the statistics of homeless people.