New Yorkers are protesting designs for a homeless shelter once more — this time on the Upper East Side.
The 88-mattress “safe haven” shelter, slated for 419 E. 91st St., would be as well shut to educational facilities and recreation websites, according to a petition on modify.org that has far more than 1,500 signatures.
“Hundreds, if not hundreds, of young children repeated this metropolis block, normally moments alone, in commute[sic] to school and sport activities,” the petition states.
Tina Ferriola, who operates NYC Elite Gymnastics next to the web site, released the signature generate because of “safety concerns throughout the board.”
“We treatment very a lot about assisting people today that are having difficulties,” Ferriola told The Put up. “We care extremely substantially about the safety of the little ones, as well.”
A single lady who signed the petition described the block as the “worst possible” for a shelter.
“Please continue to keep our innocent children secure to start with and foremost,” she wrote. “I implore this town to present some popular feeling, decency and respect for the young children of the Upper East Facet.”
Aside from the gymnastics university, the athletic heart for the all-women Sacred Heart university is on the block as is a petting zoo named The Ant Farm.
The Goddard Riverside nonprofit would run the 7-story shelter in conjunction with the metropolis. Scheduled to open up coming calendar year, the facility would provide meals and solutions, recreation space and a rooftop smoking cigarettes space to the two guys and ladies. The citizens can deliver pets, much too.
Citizens of the building could remain up to a yr as they changeover into everlasting housing, stated Roderick Jones, Goddard Riverside’s govt director.
Not like regular shelters, all those in “safe havens” don’t have to go away during the working day.
Goddard hopes functioning with the local community will stay clear of the kind of uproar that took place soon after the town turned the Lucerne Resort, at 201 W. 79th St., into a shelter for homeless gentlemen, Jones told The Put up. Several Higher West Siders complained the gentlemen were harming the neighborhood’s excellent of lifetime.
“We’re operating with an open hand. We’re listening to the community and operating with them to handle fears,” Jones said.
The Local community Board backed the system Jan. 20.
Place resident Jordan Stein explained to the board he understood some of his neighbors’ considerations, but assumed the shelter would be an improvement around the city’s classic shelters.
“This sort of secure haven housing is truly the foreseeable future of homeless services,” he mentioned.