UWS Women’s Shelter Draws Ire of Neighbors, Calls for Reforms

A 200-bed women’s shelter on West 59th Street is drawing heat from locals, who say residents of the shelter are not getting the help they need and are interfering with their kids enjoyment of a neighborhood playground and cfreating potential problems with nearby schools.

It is a familiar complaint around the borough. Residents further uptown complained about what they said were a rise in crime incidents and other problems that they said erupted when a women’s shelter was opened inside the former Calhoun School on West 74th St. And a group of East Village residents were unsuccessful when they tried to block a men’s intake shelter from opening on East 3rd Street. More recently, residents on the UES objected to plans for a 200-bed women’s shelter on First Ave. and East 61st Street.

“The 59th Street Project Renewal shelter is a symptom of the homeless industrial complex that has plagued New York city for decades, putting profits over people, and we are here to say enough is enough,” Heather, a local mom, said at the press conference. “It is not ethical to warehouse hundreds of mentally ill, chemically-addicted people in any neighborhood of any borough, especially without providing real medical care and support.”

Saritha Komatireddy, a former federal prosecutor who is running for NYS Attorney General against Letitia James, joined parents and residents outside of Gertrude Ederle Playground on West 59th Street between Amsterdam Ave. and West End Ave., Aug. 15 to discuss the safety concerns. Project Renewal, a nonprofit which has partnered with NYC’s Department of Homeless Services (DHS) since the early 1990s is in charge of the shelter. Local residents claim the shelter’s residents have caused public disorder through instances of drug use (including discarded needles) and nudity in front of children using the neighborhood playground.

City Council member Gale Brewer has also been critical of the way the shelter is being run.

The shelter at 537 W. 59 St. currently houses up to 200 women in dorm-style rooms. Project Renewal is working the shelter under a 40-year city contract, reported to cost half a billion dollars, according to local residents. Currently, the shelter is waiting for its final federal approval before opening its ground-floor clinic. According to a spokesperson for the organization, shelter residents received behavioral health and medical services, case management, and other forms of support within the shelter.

“We have increased outreach in the surrounding area and continue to work closely with the Department of Social Services and other partners to respond promptly when concerns are brought to our attention,” a spokesperson for Project Renewal wrote to The Spirit, in response to local backlash. “Our focus is on helping women stabilize their lives and move toward permanent housing.”

A local parent, who wished to remain anonymous, said they have been more wary of walking around the neighborhood with their kids due to the shelter’s presence.

”For sure we’re more careful,” the parent told The Spirit. “We haven’t been in this playground since [the shelter] opened–we usually come here every weekend. But we’ll see how things go and if police starts coming more often or making sure that no one is wandering into the playground because I’ve seen people sleeping on the benches, sitting, doing drugs on the other side of this park, so it’s not a good location for this playground.”

Prior to the shelter’s opening, the parent discussed how quiet the neighborhood used to be,.

“The [John Jay] college is one thing, but on the corner you have, I think three [schools],” the parent said. “On the other side of this park, Herschel is from, I think, 3-year-olds to 18-year-olds and then behind is another elementary and high school together.”

“So there are multiple schools in this area so it’s full of families,” the parent added. “It’s mostly families. It’s not like Midtown or Soho, like, it’s more family-oriented. It’s a weird location.”

Komatireddy, who was endorsed by Trump, said issues of fraud and corruption within the homeless industry in New York require legal intervention.

“There’s red flags everywhere and no one doing an investigation,” Komatireddy said at the press conference, blaming the incumbent attorney general.

“Homelessness is a public safety issue, for the people who are on the streets and for the people in the neighborhoods around them,” Komatireddy added.

“Since Project Renewal opened the shelter, we’ve seen shelter residents walking around naked from the waist down with their genitals visible as they talk to children in the playground, urinating in public, fighting, abusing drugs and drinking alcohol,” Heather said at the press conference.

“To be very clear, these neighbors do not place blame with this vulnerable population. They need help, but the help they need cannot be provided by warehousing them in a 200-bed, dormitory-style shelter,” Heather added.

Security issues cited by residents included the shelter’s apparent failure to deliver on promises to have external security cameras on the premises and to carry out hourly security rounds in the community. Additionally, residents noted concerns over the drugs that the clinic will prescribe when approved to open, including methadone alternatives.

Jacob, a 15-year resident of the neighborhood and father of three, said residents’ issues are not with the women utilizing the shelter’s facilities, but rather the industry and set-up of the shelter itself.

“There’s a narrative out there that we lack empathy, ‘Where’s your heart for these people?’” Jacob said at the press conference. “I actually think our empathy is being taken advantage of. When you see executives make half a million dollars for the kinds of outcomes they’re getting, it’s very clear that the community here is getting taken advantage of. Who is this helping? It’s not helping the women. The women here aren’t getting the kind of care they deserve.”

“It’s certainly not helping our community,” Jacob added. “It’s not helping the people who pay taxes here, who live here, who’s quality of life has deteriorated.”

“We are not asking for you to close this facility,” Heather said. “We ask that this facility provide housing for a smaller number of women who are further along on their journey to independent living. We ask that project renewal be held accountable to the population it is being paid half a billion dollars to take care of, and to the community it has joined.”