Financial District locals are raging against plans to open a “safe haven” homeless shelter in their lower Manhattan neighborhood — just 50 feet away from a city-funded site housing migrants.
But the FiDi West Neighborhood Association appears to be fighting a losing battle, as shelter operators said during a Community Board 1 meeting Wednesday evening that the 84-bed coed facility would be opening as planned in late July or August.
The neighborhood group, created 18 months ago to address the planned shelter at 105 Washington St., argues its proximity to nearby schools and parks will exacerbate safety concerns spurred by the humanitarian emergency relief center for migrants at 99 Washington St., according to an online petition.
“The quality of life issues as a result of the migrant shelter has been exponential— loitering, drug use, sales of goods up and down Rector street,” one member of the neighborhood association, who did not want to be named, told The Post. “These are very very narrow streets— broken off from the south of [the] World Trade Center. It’s a little armpit of the city.”
The online petition – created in April and signed by over 1,200 people – urged thorough criminal background checks, an 11 p.m. curfew, a safety protocol inked by police and local officials, as well as a reduced bed count of 50, among other amendments to the plans. Criminal background checks should include a sex offender registry scrub, the petition reads.
While the 105 Washington St. shelter has been in the works for years, residents said claims that the operators, the Center for Urban Community Services, listened to community concerns were “false.”
“They ticked a box, they did ‘community outreach’ and it’s just a false statement,” a FiDi West Neighborhood Association member said.
“The reality is you have two shelters opening 15 feet from each other and both shelter operators are not accountable for anything that happens outside of their premises.”
A May 29 update to the petition alleges city agencies like the NYC Department of Social Services have “completely ignored and rejected any attempt of a conversation.” A request for comment from DSS was not immediately returned.
Any hope of a compromise fizzled out Wednesday night during the community board’s Quality of Life, Health, Housing & Human Services Committee – attended by about 30 neighborhood residents – where shelter officials deemed the plans as set in stone.
Curfews and other demands brought forth by the neighborhood association won’t be enforced – but there will be quiet hours starting at 10 p.m. and a “good neighbor policy,” which discourages loitering and “all sorts of other things that reflect poorly on themselves,” said Hadaryah Morgan, CEO and General Counsel at Center for Urban Community Services.
“Having a curfew where people have to be inside the site … is definitely something that doesn’t work well for the Safe Haven model,” he said. “So we haven’t changed that.”
Safe Haven shelters are low-threshold shelters with “less rules and regulations” for street homeless adults, according to city documents. The planned shelter will provide primary care, nursing, psychiatric, security and consultation services to residents.
Nearby schools include Leman Preparatory School, P.S. 150 and the High School of Economics and Finance, as well as West Thames playground, Zuccotti Park and Liberty Park.
Similar plans to create a long-term shelter for single men at 41-43 Beekman St. has sparked outrage among locals; that facility is due to begin construction this summer and open in late 2025.
Plans to build a 60-bed shelter at 320 Pearl St. with a rooftop smoking section has also stirred controversy in lower Manhattan, The Post previously reported.
The Center for Urban Community Services currently operates over two dozen transitional and permanent supportive housing sites across New York City.
Capt. Joel Rosenthal, commanding officer of the NYPD’s 1st precinct, who was present at the Wednesday meeting, told The Post cops have responded to noise and quality of life complaints from the migrant shelter at 99 Washington St., and will continue to respond for “every call” once the new shelter opens.
“If we’re there and we see it, we will obviously address it,” Rosenthal said. “Other than that 311, 911 are your friends.”
Addressing quality of life and safety concerns, Morgan said Urban Community Services will “investigate all the complaints we get.”
“If this is our client and they are engaged in such repeated conduct which are not abiding by the policy and rules — We will work with DHS to have that person removed and placed in a different location, facility or type of environment,” Morgan added.
Neighborhood resident Shelley, who declined to provide her last name, told The Post most locals are “pro-shelter” and want to aid the migrant population – but 105 Washington St. isn’t the right place to do it.
“It’s really tight,” Shelley told The Post. “They’re mostly delightful, pleasant, happy to be here — mostly, but it’s just a lot of people on that corner.”
“Pretending like it’s not going to cause issues is extreme gaslighting,” another local told The Post. “This has been going on for years. And it’s been very quiet and underhanded.”