Letter to Council Member Gale Brewer from UWS Open Hearts
September 9, 2023
Dear Council Member Brewer,
We write as your Upper West Side constituents and as New Yorkers concerned about the growing homelessness crisis which, as of August 27, 2023, included more than 111,500 people in various shelters in the five boroughs. This includes tens of thousands of lifelong New Yorkers who are unable to pay record rents and have faced eviction with their families. It also includes brand-new arrivals fleeing various forms of violence and persecution in nations across the world, ranging from Mexico to Mauritania, from Uruguay to Ukraine, from Colombia to China.
We adamantly believe all of them are our neighbors and deserve to have their basic needs–like food, clothing, and especially, shelter–met. Not only is this the right thing to do, it is legally required given the right-to-shelter mandate which New York City has had to abide by for more than four decades. While we're disappointed to see the Adams' Administration's attempts to challenge the right to shelter through legal filings and the state's willingness to grant waivers that significantly reduce the basic quality of life in shelters, we are committed to defending the rights of all of our neighbors to safe shelter provided by New York City.
With such a large population of New Yorkers who need and deserve assistance, we must have all hands on deck to support our homeless neighbors. That means welcoming homeless New Yorkers to our neighborhoods by welcoming the services from which they will benefit.
Through our work as the Upper West Side chapter of the Open Hearts Initiative, we've welcomed homeless New Yorkers to our neighborhood at every turn. In the last few months alone:
We were proud to see the opening of Breaking Ground's West 83rd Street Safe Haven, whose evidence-based, low-barrier model is designed to bring unsheltered neighbors inside where they can receive case management and housing specialist support. After mobilizing dozens of members to speak in support of the Safe Haven before Manhattan Community Board 7 at several meetings this spring, we partnered with a local faith-based institution to assemble welcome kits with basic needs items for new residents.
We have reached out to our asylum-seeking neighbors at New York City Health + Hospitals' Humanitarian Emergency Relief and Response Centers (HERRCs) at the Stratford Arms on W. 70th St. and at the Amsterdam Residences on W. 85th St. and have hosted community chalking events at which residents, staff members, and community members and leaders came together to spread kindness by creating art on the sidewalks. The Stratford Arms, in particular, has been targeted by a small group of community residents who seek to remove their new neighbors just as they become part of our community, citing unfounded concerns about property values. Open Hearts members also live on the block and we have found many other neighbors in support. We will continue to oppose the efforts to push our new neighbors out.
And finally, as construction continues on Project Renewal's W. 59th St. Shelter, a purpose-built facility that will have the capacity to shelter 200 women upon opening in 2025, we're offering our welcome and support. The facility, in addition to providing shelter for women with mental health challenges and support from 70+ staff members, will offer a ground-floor health clinic to serve members of the surrounding community. Our members have spoken in support of homeless neighbors at the Community Board and debunked misinformation about the shelter site and its future residents.
Unfortunately not all neighbors have done the same, and we're dismayed and alarmed at the resurgence of hostile rhetoric from some Upper West Siders about New Yorkers in need, which reprises many of the exclusionary narratives from earlier in the pandemic. Responses to new homeless neighbors that try to keep them out on account of fears for "safety" and "quality of life" are thinly veiled attempts to preserve the neighborhood as a place of opportunity for some and exclusion for others. As advocates for racial justice and housing justice, we condemn these counterproductive and harmful efforts.
In particular, we're deeply disappointed to see the intense opposition to the W. 59th St. shelter that has emerged upon the formation of the group Friends of Ederle Playground. By spinning a fear-mongering narrative of misinformation, the group has tried to convince Upper West Siders that the homeless women who will move into this shelter when it opens in 2025, will pose a danger to themselves, their children, and their beloved playground. One participant at a recent rally, for example, described this site as a coordinated effort "to turn the places where we work, where our children play, and where we walk our dogs into a warehouse for violent offenders and the mentally ill." In reality, the shelter will feature a robust service model to support our homeless neighbors on their pathway to permanent housing. On the ground floor of the building, there will be a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) that will offer medical services ranging from primary care to HIV treatment to the broader Upper West Side community. Friends of Ederle Playground’s fear mongering is both misinformed and inconsistent with the values of the Upper West Side we know and love.
Though it has become a common refrain in neighborhood-level campaigns against shelters and other services for homeless New Yorkers, it is not, and has never been, true that neighborhood residents have been made less safe by the presence of homeless neighbors. Nor do homeless neighbors pose an additional risk to children: the data shows that people who harm children are overwhelmingly likely to be family members or known acquaintances, an inconvenient fact when one wishes to use children as a shield for exclusionary policies.
While the shelter is sited next to the Gertrude Ederle Playground, there is nothing about having a shelter nearby that is incompatible with also having a safe place for children and families. Indeed, the shelter will be a safe place for the women residents themselves, providing stability through on-site wraparound services. Those of us with children frequently bring them with us to volunteer at free stores or to participate in other activities with shelter residents. Helping those in need, and teaching that a just society meets everyone’s needs, is a core part of the values we wish to instill in our children. Furthermore, Open Hearts members have children who attend schools directly across from the 83rd Street Safe Haven, play regularly at Gertrude Ederle Playground, and spend time near other sites serving homeless neighbors. Although some community voices may be louder or choose to hire lawyers and lobbyists in an attempt to keep people out, they don’t represent the full spectrum of parents on the Upper West Side. The needs of one group are not in competition with those of another, and both can be supported on a thriving Upper West Side block.
The argument that homeless New Yorkers are dangerous to children has been used to challenge the placement of desperately needed services in the vicinity of playgrounds, schools, and other community institutions that serve children. Friends of Ederle Playground even proposes City-level legislation that would ban such services within a radius of such facilities. Not only is this proposition unproductive, given its baseless premise, but it would severely limit the availability of sites for increasing shelter capacity citywide. Indeed, there are playgrounds and schools in every neighborhood throughout the city, but there are also people who need our help. Moreover, their anti-homeless rhetoric is incendiary. Their language and false allegations are especially harmful to the many children and families who are homeless and are interwoven into our neighborhood and schools.
We appreciate your office’s work to welcome new neighbors in recent months even when there has been resistance from some community members, and we expect the same welcoming response from our Council Member on 59th Street. We're disappointed that you have lent your influence and credibility to the misinformation by joining calls for a work stoppage at the shelter site and by standing and speaking with the group at a press conference. While our organization has for years joined your calls for increased supportive and affordable housing in our neighborhood, we must not block the emergency shelter capacity which is so desperately needed. As we heard at the recent community conversation convened by the Mayor’s office, the choice for our neighborhood is not shelter or housing; we need shelter and housing. And the pulpit of elected office cannot be used to embolden exclusionary voices. We urge you to condemn the actions of Friends of Ederle Playground and their efforts to demean and dehumanize people experiencing homelessness at a moment when the homelessness crisis has never been more pressing.
There is another path. We can join together as a community to offer our welcome and support for homeless neighbors, and Open Hearts members have for several years. We have built relationships that have developed into close reciprocal friendships with our homeless neighbors, sharing resources, advice, and shared experiences, and supporting one another through difficult moments and exciting triumphs like the ultimate goal: transition from shelter to permanent housing). The W. 59th St. shelter offers more opportunities to create supportive community among neighbors.
We are proud to be residents of the Upper West Side not just because of the opportunities this neighborhood has provided for ourselves and our families, but because this is a place where those who are vulnerable and those who are struggling are lifted up and taken care of. We can't turn our backs on our vulnerable neighbors now, and we hope you won't either.
Sincerely,
Wendy Strauss, Co-Chair, Upper West Side Open Hearts Kindness Committee
Anne Kemper, Chair, Open Hearts Initiative Policy/Advocacy Committee
Candice Braun, Co-Founder, Upper West Side Open Hearts
Gayle Meyer, Co-Chair, Upper West Side Open Hearts Kindness Committee
on behalf of Upper West Side Open Hearts