Crown Heights Community Board Temporarily Shuts Down Utica Ave Homeless Shelter Proposal
On Tuesday night, Crown Heights residents made their voices heard in a rare mini’ political win for the neighborhood.
In a major victory for law abiding residents of Crown Heights, Brooklyn Community Board 9 Land Use Committee rejected the proposed homeless shelter at 530 Utica Avenue it received a 6â2 vote against the project, stopping it at this stage of the process.
Prior to the vote taking place, Jewish residents alongside our concerned friends and neighbors in the African American community together stood up, spoke out, and make it clear that our unified communities and neighborhood residents will not remain silent while another major homeless shelter is proposed in our already overburdened district.
It will increase crime, decrease quality of life, it will overburden the infrastructure and remove one of the last commercial corners in the area.
The proposed homeless shelter (tower) development on the border of Crown Heights, East Flatbush and Remsen Village at 530 Utica Avenue, at the corner of Rutland Road and Utica Ave, calls for a 15-story residential tower with 224 units under the NY tax payer funded “non”-profit RiseBoro, the proposed shelter would also include “supportive housing” for outsiderfoster youth which are not from this district or neighborhood as they exit the juvenile detention system. If built this will be the tallest structure in the neighborhood and one of, if not the tallest homeless shelters in New York City.
This homeless shelter proposal comes on top of the growing placement of dozens of homeless shelters already sprinkled all over Crown Heights, including the under-construction North America’s largest MEGA’ Drug Shelter ‘mini city’ for mentally ill chemically addicted EDP’s at 681 Clarkson Ave, and the recently opened three building 12-story Utica Crescent homeless shelter complex which is circling both the shuttered Kingsbrook Synagogue where Jews are discriminatory banned from and this 530 Utica Ave lot.
Although unfortunately numerous recent homeless shelter proposals for Crown Heights were approved, Tuesday’s vote was an important victory, although the fight is not over.
There will be another crucial vote at the full Community Board 9 General Meeting in one week Thursday, November 19, 7:PM At 330 Crown Street (between New York Ave and Nostrand Ave), where the homeless shelter project will once again be considered.
Our neighborhood cannot afford to become complacent, an even stronger turnout from the entire Crown Heights community is needed by the next meeting.
Tuesday’s vote against the shelter showed that when district residents show up b’Achdus, organize, and make their voices heard, sometimes it can make a difference.
Applications to join either Brooklyn Community Boards 8, 9, or 17, which represents Crown Heights, East Flatbush and Remsen Village are now open. Anash that love the Shchunah are encouraged to sign up. https://form.jotform.com/
To sign up for Brooklyn Community Board 9 (CB9 includes majority of CH) weekly email blast notifications for important upcoming neighborhood development alerts (which includes shelter proposals), email them: infobk09@cb.nyc.gov
