Kingsbridge residents upset at new shelter plans

<p>Kingsbridge residents are upset with the city's plan for a new homeless shelter. &nbsp;</p>

News 12 Staff

Jul 18, 2017, 4:34 PM

Updated 2,704 days ago

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Kingsbridge residents are upset with the city's plan for a new homeless shelter. 
According to the Department of Homeless Services, 80 homeless families with children will be moving into a newly constructed shelter at 5731 Broadway next month.
DHS officials say the move is part of Mayor Bill de Blasio's plan to put an end to the use of cluster sites and commercial hotel facilities for the homeless citywide.
The move will shut down the only shelter within Community Board 8 and push the families living there out to the new site in Kingsbridge.
A statement from the DHS says, "Homeless New Yorkers come from every community across the five boroughs, so we need every community to come together to address homelessness."
But local leaders like state Assemblyman Jeffery Dionowitz says he just isn't buying it.
"I believe that this is the wrong way to address the homeless issue. We should be doing rent subsidies to keep people in their homes rather than concentrate lots of homeless people in one building," he says.
He and Councilman Cohen oppose the new shelter, and say since the beginning of the building's development, they were told the site would be market-rate homes. However, just last week they learned it would become a shelter.
"A sneak attack in the sense that we were told one thing, we were given another," Dionowitz says
Dionowitz and others intend to protest until residents move in.