Get the Facts: Shelter Planned for 537 W. 59th St
New York City is facing a homelessness and affordable housing crisis. On June 1, 81,251 people slept in the NYC Department of Homeless Services (DHS) shelter system. The W. 59th St. shelter, which you can learn more about here from its provider, is part of an effort to expand shelter capacity in neighborhoods across the city to meet the needs of our homeless neighbors (and provide dozens of trained clinicians and staff members who will support residents' needs). Upper West Siders should welcome that!
Here’s why:
Shelters give people the opportunity to come inside, receive needed services, and search for permanent housing. Can you imagine apartment searching when sleeping outside, without access to storage, showers, or housing search help?
The shelter will have services on-site--including staff like psychiatrists, nurses, an entitlements specialist, an occupational therapist, and a recreation specialist--to meet folks' needs and help them access housing. In all, the shelter will have more than 70 staff members!
The shelter will include a 1500 square-foot on-site health clinic on the ground floor, which will serve anyone from the surrounding neighborhood who needs it, in addition to serving the folks living at the shelter. Contrary to opponents’ claims, this Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) will not be a drug rehabilitation center, and it will not dispense Suboxone “openly to the general public.” Rather, the clinic will offer a wide range of health services, including primary care, behavioral health care, and gender-affirming care—a great resource for our neighborhood! The clinic will be staffed with health professionals who can evaluate patients’ needs, and if they determine that a patient could benefit from Suboxone—a treatment for opioid use disorder which has saved countless lives—they will write a prescription for the medication, which will need to be filled at an off-site pharmacy.
There is no evidence that homeless shelters make communities less safe, and that includes shelters like this one, which will be housing women who are living with mental health conditions—just like many folks on the UWS are! Mental health and substance use challenges can happen to anyone, but they don’t mean people are inherently violent or dangerous to children. Besides, not having stable housing makes it much harder to access care and support, and people with mental health challenges and without permanent housing are actually far more likely to be the victims of crimes than to be perpetrators. Folks experiencing homelessness who are living with these challenges deserve the same support that folks with more resources get.
There’s also no evidence that the presence of a shelter is harmful to children. Rather, your children’s sense of justice and service can be enriched by seeing you welcome individuals who have less than your family, and joining in to make them feel at home. And the presence of the shelter will not affect children’s access to Gertrude Ederle Playground next door; children and families can continue to gather there. Project Renewal is even funding a seasonal program associate during the construction of the shelter to make sure that the park is a safe and inviting place to play. There’s no reason that the shelter and the playground can’t be good neighbors!
Stopping the W. 59th St. shelter would not make our homeless neighbors go away, but it would leave them without desperately needed additional indoor shelter space. We can welcome shelter residents and support permanent housing at the same time! Here are some ways you can advocate for affordable housing in New York City right now:
Tell Council Member Gale Brewer (212-873-0282) to stand strong in support of legislation that would help folks exit shelter and get into permanent housing more quickly.
Get involved with efforts like Housing Justice for All to join the fight on the state level for bills like Good Cause Eviction—which would protect tenants from unjust evictions and unreasonable rent increases—and the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act.
Join us in supporting upcoming projects that would provide permanent affordable housing on the Upper West Side, like this 100% affordable project by the Fortune Society which will be converting an illegal hotel on W. 97th St to 82 affordable units with social services on site.
On the Upper West Side, we don't turn our backs on our neighbors in need–we welcome them with open arms. UWS families and community organizations have an important role to play in welcoming and supporting new neighbors & holding the shelter provider accountable to the needs of shelter residents. We're excited for our families to be a part of that, and hope that shelter opponents will be as well.