I was in Morris Park the other day. I came across a flier about the proposed Correctional Health and Housing initiative that the city wants to put on the Jacobi Hospital campus. The flier states that it will house 60% of people who have been released from Rikers Island (who have serious chronic illnesses), with a possible 40% more homeless — although the details are sketchy — for a total of, I believe, 200 units on the Jacobi campus.
The community is up in arms. There was a two-page article in the Daily News about it, as well an article in the Bronx Times. The chairperson of Community Board 11 states that the Bronx already has too many shelters (CB11 does not currently have any operating DHS shelters) and we should not get any more because they will destroy community integrity. Reasons stated on the flier to oppose the 1900 Seminole Ave. (on Jacobi campus) project, located on the campus of Jacobi Hospital, include it being 1 mile from five elementary schools and playgrounds; the elderly walking to and from stores and churches; that it will be next to a memorial for those who died in 9/11; that there is already Bronx State and the Methadone Center nearby; that the population could include pedophiles and the mentally ill; and even the Capri Motel homeless shelter, which is located 3 miles away in CB10.
When I read these articles and the flier, I couldn’t help thinking that this is the same board that deliberately sited two homeless shelters for single men (200 beds each) across the street from an elementary school for developmentally disabled kids and in close proximity to the St Raymond’s Church and schools; and another one on a toxic waste site next to a proposed affordable housing project for 20% formerly homeless and very low- and low-income residents, that will cost the city taxpayers $443 million — it’s also one block from the Westchester Square business area. This means that the kids in the Easter Seals Bronx Developmental Center could be across the street from “pedophiles and the mentally ill.” That people shopping in Westchester Square, including the elderly, will be just feet away from 200 homeless men, compounds the issue Westchester Square already has with the overflow from the methadone clinic on Waters Place.
You have heard all this in this column before. But when I read all of this outcry about this proposed project on Seminole Avenue, I thought if these are reasons to be against this, where is the outrage about the 400 homeless men slated to surround Westchester Square?
We have endeavored over the past year to raise some awareness of this situation with the media, but to no avail. We have reached out to other community groups also fighting a battle against an attempt to forever change the character of the community. They have been largely unresponsive.
People, understand this: We are being challenged by the city on many fronts, and in order to keep the character of our communities we must band together. We cannot afford to have blinders on, thinking only our area is important, while consigning another community to fall into neglect and urban decay. When that happens, no one wins and we all lose.
We have a petition online about the Blondell Avenue and Poplar Street homeless shelters: https://chng.it/vJjWdyMcVd. Please sign. We are at 525 signatures, and we need to keep it going. Thank you for your support.
