Data recently compiled from the City's own agencies reveals that the central Brooklyn neighborhood where the Bedford-Atlantic Shelter is located (Community Board 8), although small geographically, houses more residential social service beds per acre than any other Brooklyn community. At 112 bed per 100 acres—more than five times the average—the situation has become a crisis demanding immediate attention. The data used for this analysis is the City's own, and includes beds from both State (Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities), Office of Mental Health, Office of ASIS) and City (DHS) agencies, as well as those contracted through non-profit organizations. This data does not include the many ¾ houses in the community as the information was not available at the time of assessment.
Expected to participate are Borough President Marty Markowitz, City Council Member Letitia James, NYS Assemblymen Karim Camara and Hakeem Jeffries, and NYS Senator Eric Adams.
Courtesy of phndc.org (Read the full article here)
Friday, May 30, 2008
Rally against relocation of homeless intake center to Crown Heights
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Life at Castle Grayskull - Folding the Mattress
I can still remember my first night at Bedford-Atlantic. After an entire day of waiting, I finally discovered around 10:30 pm that I was being assigned a bed. I was one of the lucky ones. Those who arrived too late to get a top spot on the waiting list were herded out to buses to be transported to Bellevue for the night. After getting my bed assignment, I then proceeded to housekeeping to get linen. Then I proceeded to my assigned dormitory. I was quite exhausted, so after making my bed, I got into it and quickly fell asleep.
Read the full post here!
Life at Castle Grayskull - Police Raids
Police raids occasionally occur at Bedford-Atlantic. This is not in the slightest bit surprising, considering that there are a high number of drug users and dealers on the premises as well as a high number of parolees who are required to stay in the shelter by their parole officers. For the police, picking up somebody in the shelter is about as challenging as stealing candy from a baby. This is because anybody who is in the New York shelter system has provided digital fingerprints and mug shots as well as their vital statistics. All the police have to do is show up at the shelter with the information sheets of those they wish to apprehend and the shelter staff give them the bed number the person is assigned to.
Read the full post here!
Life at Castle Grayskull - Drug Free Zone? (Part 2)
The guy sitting on his bed does not look like the stereotypical druggie. Then again, they never do. What, after all, is a "stereotypical druggie"? He is a pot-bellied white male with a goatee. As he does whatever it is that he is doing, he is visited by two of his mates. One is a diminutive, stick figure of a man. The other is Bedford-Atlantic's answer to Dolph Lundgren. At around 6 feet 4, he is an imposing character. His cheeks are sunken, his jaw prominent and sharp. His eyes are dark and piercing. Typical attire for him includes baggy jeans, a pullover sweater with a weight-lifting belt worn over it, a du-rag and a baseball cap placed over it at a bizarre angle (two-thirds to the rear seems a popular angle). This is not somebody any sane person wants to mess around with.
Read the full post here!
Shut down this nightmare
According to New York State's online registry, there are 27 Level 3 sex offenders living at the city-run Bedford-Atlantic Armory in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, or directly across the street at a second homeless facility run by a nonprofit using funds from the Department of Homeless Services.
A Level 3 designation is reserved for New York's most violent rapists and pedophiles, men who have done vile, unspeakable things to women and children. They are among the hundreds living at the twin shelters who end up wandering the streets of Crown Heights because they are ordered out of the shelter each morning with nothing constructive to do.
That is how DHS currently puts families at risk every day, just as they have for more than 25 years since the armory was converted into one of the worst-run shelters in the city...
Young and old, black and Jewish, rich and poor will all be on hand for a rally against the plan at 12:30 p.m. this Sunday right near the scene of the crime, the corner of Bedford and Atlantic Aves. Rally details are at revitalizecrownheights.org.
Courtesy of the NY Daily News
Read the full article here
Update: The figure provided describing 27 Level 3 sex offenders living at the Bedford-Atlantic Armory falls short of the actual reality. In addition to the 27 at Bedford Atlantic, another 14 can be found just around the corner at 1140 Pacific Street in the Peter G. Young Residence Shelter, another homeless shelter operated by the New York City Department of Homeless Services. That makes a total of 41 Level 3 sex offenders housed on the same street by the DHS in a Brooklyn neighborhood that has just about had enough.
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Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Life at Castle Grayskull - Getting One's Mail
Thankfully, I do not get too much mail sent to me at Bedford-Atlantic, because the mailroom clerk is one of the most unpleasant people in the shelter. So far, I have had to go through the mail procedure only three times. In two of those cases, I was shouted at and treated rudely, despite trying my hardest to follow the correct procedure.
The mailroom clerk is an older woman who seems to be holding on just long enough to qualify for her pension and head off to a cantankerous retirement. When she does, good riddance. There is already enough ill will in the shelter without her.
Read the full post here!
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Seeking Solutions for People Adrift - People Respond
Genata Carrol of the East Village says:
"As a clinician who has worked with homeless people for 15 years, I am concerned about city plans to move the main intake center from Manhattan. Removing the center from the borough that has the largest number of homeless individuals is a counterintuitive choice and may endanger those who will not have the wherewithal on a freezing night to get to the Bedford-Atlantic Armory in Brooklyn.
Chronically homeless people are not unlike homing pigeons, returning to the shelter that they know. Many of these individuals are mentally ill, confused and unable to navigate the administrative hurdles that the Department of Homeless Services has put in place to receive shelter.
While I support the proclaimed change in direction that the city has begun, sending outreach teams to find the homeless and help them to safe havens with fewer barriers to entry, in practice, I have not encountered any such change, and neither have my patients."
Courtesy of the NY Times
Read the rest of the letters (here)
Friday, May 23, 2008
Crown Heights Group Still Doesn't Want Homeless Center
Crown Heights residents continue to fight the mayor's plan to move the intake center for homeless men from Manhattan to the Bedford-Atlantic Armory. Crown Heights Revitalization Movement (CHRM, pronounced "charm") organizer Rachel Pratt said in an email about their planned June 1 rally, "At this point, we believe that we will be joined by Borough President Marty Markowitz, City Council Member Letitia James, NYS Assemblymen Karim Camara and Hakeem Jeffries, and NYS Senator Eric Adams"... In private, local residents told us they're already overwhelmed by the crowds of homeless men who regularly congregate on the sidewalks surrounding the shelter, especially in the early mornings when the building is evacuated for cleaning. "I'm not exactly sending my kids out to play on the street," said one. The community district has six times the average residential social services beds at 116 per 100 acres, the highest in the borough.
Courtesy of brownstoner.com (Read the full article here)
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Sex Offender: Victor Horrach
Name: Horrach, Victor
Description
Race: Other
Ethnicity: Hispanic
Height: 5'07"
Weight 240
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Special Characteristics: Scar-arm
DOB: 07/07/1960
Residence: Bedford-Atlantic Armory Shelter
Conviction
Crime: Sexual Abuse, 1st Degree
Date: 07/16/2002
Victim: Female, 6 years
Sentence: 4 Years, State Prison
Offense Description: Actual Sexual Contact
Relationship to victim: Non-Stranger
Weapon used: No weapon used
Force used: Other
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Sex Offender: Donald Lucas
Name: Lucas, Donald
Description
Race: Black
Ethnicity: Unknown
Height: 5'05"
Weight 160
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Special Characteristics: none
DOB: 08/16/1950
Residence: Bedford-Atlantic Armory Shelter
Conviction
Crime: Sexual Abuse, 1st Degree
Date: 03/21/1994
Victim: Male, 15 years
Sentence: 30 months to 5 years, State Prison, Consecutive
Offense Description: Actual, MoreThanOnce Sexual Contact
Relationship to victim: Unknown
Weapon used: Unknown
Force used: Other
Monday, May 19, 2008
FROM BELLEVUE TO BKLYN: HOMELESS CENTER TO MOVE
"This is a case of Brooklyn being dumped on," said Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, who opposes the plan because he thinks it's unfair to the community. Representatives from the area argue that by diverting the flow of homeless men to the Armory, the city could also be shifting more crime and congestion to the surrounding neighborhood.
It was only four years ago that the city, in its sweeping Uniting for Solutions Beyond Shelter action plan, actually pledged to increase the number of intake centers by decentralizing the intake process and creating three smaller facilities in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx. The 2004 plan said that the Manhattan intake center was flawed because "the large number of people that receive services there, the perception of the site as unsafe, and its inaccessibility to men living on the streets in other boroughs discourages some homeless men from seeking shelter."
However, since the implementation of a new homeless outreach plan in the fall of 2007, the city's priorities have changed. Hess says that DHS' ability to get the homeless into housing directly from the street (600 homeless people have moved off the street through the outreach program since last fall) makes the old notion of an intake center—whether one or three—outmoded. The goal is now to de-emphasize the intake center and reduce the number of shelter beds across the city, while promoting permanent housing for the homeless. Hess says the city has cut 1,200 shelter beds over the past two years, and aims to cut 600 more by next year.
Courtesy of citylimits.org (Read the full article here)
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Doors Close, Doors Open, and the Homeless Trudge On
According to Robert Hess, the Homeless Services commissioner, the chronically homeless prefer the smaller havens. “They voted against the shelter system — that’s why they’re on the street,” he said. “They’ve had the opportunity to come into the shelter system each and every night, and they said, ‘No, the best place for me is on the streets.’ That’s a pretty strong statement.”
Mr. Markee commended the outreach teams, but said he did not believe that they could replace a central intake center, a “front door” to the homeless services system, where people know they can go when they need help. Nearly 3,000 men new to the municipal shelter system walked into Bellevue this year, he said. The center serves about 40 people a day, according to a spokeswoman for the city’s homeless services. That figure rises significantly in colder weather.
Courtesy of the NY Times
(Read the full article here)
Friday, May 16, 2008
Tour of Homeless Shelter Does Not Solve Problem
The Coalition for the Homeless, which opposes moving the men’s intake center to Bedford-Atlantic, says outreach teams and safe havens all have their place but cannot do enough on their own, and argues that a central intake center – in Manhattan, the borough with the most street homeless – is essential to make sure the homeless can find their way into shelter whenever they want it, especially on cold nights when their lives are in danger.
Courtesy of the NY Times (Read the full article here)
Thursday, May 15, 2008
LET ME SLEEP OVER SHELTER. Despite Howls, commish still mulls homeless move to B'klyn
AFTER A HINT of retreat Tuesday, the city's homeless commissioner said yesterday that relocating the homeless men's intake center from Manhattan's East Side to Crown Heights, Brooklyn, remains "the preferred" option.
Commissioner Rob Hess of the Department of Homeless Services had been verbally pummeled at a City Council budget hearing Tuesday on the planned shift from the former Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital on the East Side to the Bed-ford-Atlantic Armory's men's shelter.
Homeless men are processed through the Bellevue facility, which has a peak capacity of about 600 beds, and if there's no room there they are transferred to other shelter facilities around the city.
Freeing up the site on First Avenue, between E. 29th and E. 30th Sts., will allow the city to develop it into a hotel and conference center compatible with surrounding medical facilities.
But Brooklyn officials fiercely oppose the move. Councilman Lewis Fidler (D-Brooklyn) called the shift of the in-take facility from the city's wealthiest community into Central Brooklyn "incredibly offensive."
"It is not going to happen," Fidler told Hess during the budget hearing Tuesday.
The development plan would require the approval of the Council, which has the last word on zoning matters.
"This homeless center, we will fight you on it tooth and nail," added Councilwoman Letitia James (D-Brooklyn, who represents the affected area of Crown Heights. "It's dead on arrival."
Hess was urged urged to rethink the move by Councilman Bill deBlasio (D-Brooklyn), chairman of the Committee on General Welfare.
"I will sleep on this," Hess replied with some hesitation. I will tell you that-I'll sleep on it."
Yesterday, after Hess paid an early-morning visit to the Crown Heights homeless center, he commented, "We're go-ing to respectfully give those concerns every consideration. Having said that, Bed-Atlantic still looks like the preferred site."
Critics contend the shelter in the hulking armory at the corner of Bedford and Atlantic Aves. is unsafe and that homeless men often wander the neighborhood.
Hess said the planned shift would actually decrease the bed capacity of the armory from 350 to 330, while also making major improvements and adding staff and security personnel.
Courtesy of the NY Daily News
May 15, 2008 Thursday Pg.26
Monday, May 12, 2008
Sex Offender: Ishakeen Stephens
Name: Stephens, Ishakeen
Description
Race: Black
Ethnicity: Unknown
Height: 5'11"
Weight 160
Hair: Black
Eyes: Black
Special Characteristics: none
DOB: 11/15/1980
Residence: Peter G. Young Residence Shelter
Conviction
Crime: Criminal Sexual Act-2nd Degree
Date: 10/18/2004
Victim: Male, 14 years
Sentence: 6 months, Local Jail
Offense Description: Actual Deviate Sexual Intercourse
Relationship to victim: Unknown
Weapon used: Unknown
Force used: No force used
Friday, May 9, 2008
DON'T DUMP HOMELESS ON B'KLYN: MARTY
Sex Offender: David Roachford
Name: Roachford, David
Description
Race: Black
Ethnicity: Not Hispanic
Height: 6'01"
Weight 195
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Special Characteristics: none
DOB: 03/02/1967
Residence: Bedford-Atlantic Armory Shelter
Conviction
Crime: Attempted Sexual Abuse, 1st Degree
Date: 02/09/1995
Victim: female, 8 years
Sentence: 21 months to 42 months, State Prison, Consecutive
Offense Description: Actual Sexual Contact
Relationship to victim: Unknown
Weapon used: Unknown
Force used: Unknown
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Misguided Homeless Intake Plan: Historical Background and Present Crisis
Since modern homelessness began in the late 1970s, the City of New York has always maintained an intake center for homeless men in Manhattan – first on East 3rd Street and the Bowery, and since 1984 at the Bellevue men's shelter on East 30th Street and First Avenue.
For the past decade, the men’s intake center at the Bellevue shelter has been the only intake point for the municipal shelter system – it is, literally, the “front door” to the shelter system for homeless single men seeking shelter.
In FY 2007 nearly 22,000 different homeless single adults sought shelter, including 7,164 homeless single men who were new to the shelter system. Currently nearly 7,000 homeless single adults sleep each night in the municipal shelter system, including more than 5,000 homeless single men.
On March 31, 2008, the New York City Economic Development Corporation announced plans to convert the Bellevue men's shelter into a luxury hotel and conference center; the City is currently seeking bids from developers. On April 25th, the Bloomberg administration told news reporters and some Brooklyn elected officials that it plans to move the men’s intake center to the Bedford-Atlantic armory, a 350-bed shelter located in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, as soon as September of this year.
City officials told news reporters that there was no longer a need for a Manhattan intake center, and that street homeless people in Manhattan would be assisted by outreach teams or could call 311, the City’s general service line. City officials also claimed that the current residents of the Bellevue shelter – around 600 men per night in April – would be relocated to housing, but offered no details about this plan.
Download the memo fact-checking the City's new intake plan!
Courtesy of Coalition for the Homeless (Read the full article here)
Markowitz Eyeing Citywide Run, But Still Brooklyn-centric
Here's Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz accusing the Bloomberg administration of "dumping" on his borough by proposing to move a homeless men's intake center to an armory in Crown Heights from the East Side of Manhattan to make way for a new hotel.
Markowitz said Brooklyn residents - particularly members of the "community of color" - are being "held hostage" in this case to the "development goals of Manhattan," adding: "It isn't fair. It's not fair to anyone, not the homeless clients or the residents of Brooklyn...or Manhattan residents, either!"
He also railed against the administration for failing to give him a heads up about this proposal, which Markowitz said was "shows ultimate disrespect."
Courtesy of the NY Daily News (Read the full article here)
Crown Heights must not pay for Bloomberg's failures
By Errol Louis
Just when my Crown Heights, Brooklyn, neighborhood was making progress - getting more cops on the beat, convincing prosecutors to shut down crackhouses, rounding up money and volunteers to plant flowers and trees on the avenues, creating a historic district and house tour - the Bloomberg administration has announced a plan that could set us back a decade.
The Department of Homeless Services wants to relocate the city's 600-bed central intake center from midtown Manhattan to the Bedford-Atlantic Armory in my neighborhood. That's a foolish and unfair idea for a lot of reasons, most of which will be laid out today at a 1 p.m. City Hall press conference led by City Councilwoman Letitia James (Working Families Party-Crown Heights) and advocates for the homeless.
The midtown intake center DHS wants to close is housed at Bellevue Hospital, a site that advocates for the homeless say makes a lot of sense: Manhattan, particularly midtown, is where many street people end up, and Bellevue's health and psychiatric services make treatment convenient.
Assessing the needs of homeless where they already are, right next to a hospital, should be a no-brainer, right? Not for the Bloomberg administration.
"We don't need the big, centralized intake centers of the past," DHS Commissioner Rob Hess told me yesterday. Of the men currently living in the 30th St. shelter, says Hess, "the vast majority will be moved to permanent housing."
And the remainder are scheduled to be shipped to Crown Heights. Specifically, to the Bedford-Atlantic Armory, which has long had a reputation as the most violent and worst-run homeless shelter in New York.
For more than two decades, the shelter's block has been a no-go zone for women, children and most anybody else. During the day, dozens of men hang around in front of "no loitering" signs, urinating against the building and trying to flag down passing cars for day labor.
It has the look and feel of a prison yard - and in some ways, that's just what it is.
"At the notorious Bedford-Atlantic shelter in Brooklyn, known to its residents as Castle Gray Skull, 15% of the 350 homeless men are paroled convicts," my colleague Brian Kates reported in 2004. Kates researched police records and found that shelter residents were responsible for 2% of the violent crime in the 77th Precinct, which has about 100,000 residents.
Hess knows his agency's facility is a disaster, acknowledging that it "has not had the greatest reputation over time." The answer, he says, will be to shrink the facility from 350 beds to 230 in what will be "a smaller, safer, more services-rich environment."
Sounds great. But I don't believe it for a minute.
Courtesy of the NY Daily News (Read the full article here)
