Mamdani administration faces backlash over 2 new Brooklyn hotel homeless shelters

The Mamdani administration plans to open two temporary homeless shelters inside hotels in Brooklyn, one in Crown Heights and one in Flatbush. The move follows the city’s sudden closure of Bellevue, a large men’s shelter with 850 beds that closed due to severe disrepair and safety concerns, including sections cordoned off. City officials say the hotel shelters will create more welcoming spaces to encourage people living on the street to enter shelter and exit more quickly. Neighborhood opposition has emerged, including an ongoing lawsuit that has paused part of the plan. Residents argue the burden is being shifted to communities that already have shelters and question equity and transparency. The city says it needs sites that can be quickly brought online to replace reduced capacity for single adult men.

"The Mamdani administration is facing some pushback from Brooklyn residents over its plans to open two temporary homeless shelters inside hotels in Brooklyn. The hotel shelters, which will open in Crown Heights and Flatbush, are the latest consequence from the city's sudden closure of the massive men's shelter known as Bellevue. City officials said the 850-bed shelter, which spans a whole city block, needed to close because of severe disrepair. Whole sections of the building had already been cordoned off for safety concerns."

"The Mamdani administration said it wants to build more welcoming spaces for homeless New Yorkers. Doing so will help convince people living on the street to come inside and exit shelter quicker, city officials said. But as the city moves to replace Bellevue's shelter beds, it's running into stiff neighborhood opposition - including an ongoing lawsuit that's forced the city to pause part of its plan."

"At a community board meeting in Crown Heights earlier this month, residents denounced the city's plan to establish a hotel shelter in a community that already has other shelters. They asked city officials why other neighborhoods that don't have any shelters weren't being forced to share the burden. " We understand that housing instability is a citywide issue that requires compassion, resources, and coordinated action. But compassion cannot come at the expense of equity, transparency, or meaningful community planning," Councilmember Rita Joseph said at the meeting."

"Nicholas Jacobelli, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeless Services, said the city needed locations "that could be quickly brought online to address the reduction in shelter capacity for single adult men." The hotel in Flatbush along Flatbush Avenue will serve 130 men, and the Ramada in Crown Heights will open for 110 men, starting in the summer, cit"

Read at Gothamist