The long-vacant building at 222 E. 13th St. near Third Avenue may be getting a new life as housing for 12-to-18 homeless LGBT youth. On Monday night, CB3's Land Use Commitee unanimously voted in support of the proposal at the former SRO and notorious crack house that has been boarded up for nearly 20 years. Per the website of the Cooper Square Committee, who is spearheading the campaign:
Their proposal (in partnership with the Ali Forney Center) is "to turn a vacant city owned building at 222 E. 13th St. into housing for 12 - 18 homeless LGBT youth. Community Board 3's resolution will urge HPD (the City's housing agency) to grant us site control so that we can apply for the funds needed to renovate the building. We appreciate the support of the more than 500 people who signed the petition in support of our proposal. We will continue to need community support to move this project forward to a successful conclusion. There are over 1,500 homeless LGBT youth in NYC, so this is a small, but important, step in addressing the larger crisis."
Find more information on the project here.
For a lot more of the complicated history on this building, read our post here: A haunted house on 13th Street?
For further reading:
The New Community Activism (City Journal)
7 comments:
This is a terrible idea.
And why is that? What do you propose for this empty building -- more rich people? a starbucks? or just continued decay?
And more important, where do you propose to house LGBT youth, many of whom are homeless because they've been abused and then rejected by their own parents? Anyone's neighborhood but yours, perhaps? or just let them live on the street like abandoned dogs.
I would rather have 100 of them living on my block than one of you, Anonymous.
My son recently told me about how a friend of his came out to his parents and they turned their backs to him. As a parent, I find it unimaginable that any parent would reject their child. I feel for the kid and others like him tremendously. It's great that such an organization exists to house and help LGBT kids. They deserve our sympathy and support.
I was walking by the place the other day when a young lady asked me to sign a petition to make this a home for LGBT youth. I signed without hesitation. And I *hate* petitions!
This building has sat empty for so long. I'd sure as hell rather see it used to support young folks who need help than be turned into a fancy townhouse for a rich person (or far worse, torn town and replaced by a glass-and-steel pile of crap for another David Schwimmer).
So add me to the people who can't see anything "terrible" at all with this proposal.
Check out the movie to verify but I think this is the building that Scorsese had Travis Bickle shoot up at the end of Taxi Driver
I can't believe that that building has any chance of being renovated. It is literally falling apart. Maybe they're tearing it down and building the youth center on the site? In any case, this is a good thing. And with the mystery lot across the street finally being developed, this block will be without any derelict lots for the first time in a generation.
the shooting end end of taxi driver was at 204 or something like that, it is a 3 story brownstone that was renovated some years ago. the front door was a bright blue and the interior was pretty run-down.
the tenants did not appreciate the scene.
i think there for a while there was storage for hot-dog carts in the dirty basement.
the landlord was a partner in the regina sro on the corner of 3rd avenue (hudsons was on the street level) and he owned 209 east 14th street (the sro with a medicaid mill on the ground floor).
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