Kenton Hall on the Bowery
A rushed city effort to close the longtime Bellevue intake shelter and shift services to new sites — including facilities on the Bowery and Third Street in the East Village — has drawn scrutiny after a man died by suicide following an abrupt relocation, according to a report by Politico.
Steven Rosa had been staying at Kenton Hall, a behavioral health shelter in the East Village, when he was told to pack up and move the next day to a hotel in Brownsville, Brooklyn.
Family members say the sudden transfer — which may have fallen short of the city's 48-hour notice standard — disrupted his care and support system. He was found dead in early April.
The move was part of the city's push to vacate the East 30th Street intake center near Bellevue and convert two East Village sites into new intake facilities. That plan required relocating hundreds of shelter residents from both Bellevue and the East Village buildings.
Advocates had warned that quickly moving vulnerable residents — many dealing with mental health and substance use issues — could pose serious risks if not handled carefully.
The intake-site plan, including the East Village locations, is now on hold after a judge paused the rollout amid a lawsuit from local residents who say the city bypassed required review and notice processes.
Read the full Politico article here.
A community task force, VOICE (Village Organization for the Integrity of Community Engagement), has organized a petition, which "demands that the City rescind the emergency orders which have bypassed community safety."
Find the petition here.
17 comments:
Promoting the petition again, providing no information on the people behind it.
RIP Steven Rosa
Smells like NIMBY to me.
Petition seems to be started by Trish Goff, a 50-something former it girl, and her modeling world beau, David Bonnouvrier. She is currently employed as a high-end real estate agent for Sotheby's.
Ahhh the magic of NIMBY. Simply invoke those 5 precious letters and you too can make a straight faced argument that an area that already cares for way more than our fair share of NYC's needy, mentally unwell and ex-convicts should pile on top of that the Five Borough's entire homeless population seeking shelter. You know better...because you said NIMBY.
"Trish Goff, a 50-something former it girl,"
Yes we all remember another former it girl Amanda Burden, who served as the Director of City Planning under Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
"Moss is particularly attuned to gentrification’s effects on individual neighborhoods and merchants and argues that the changes are not merely the results of the free market but a deliberate class makeover of the city. He illustrates this point through the example of the 2008 rezoning of Harlem led by Bloomberg’s city-planning director Amanda Burden, who justified the plans to the New York Times with an anecdote about when she attended a concert at the Apollo Theater and couldn’t find a nearby restaurant that appealed to her. "
That being said this whole issue IMO seems to be a major CF of grey whereby you get an unholy alliance of homeless advocates and Trish Goff? WTF? A failure accross the board. What's the answer? You got me.
Aw the magic of saying we do more than our fair share ....
It's not "magic", pal. There are 4 halfway houses/homeless shelters within 2 blocks of my home plus another large one opening up soon. There used to be 2 more, but they closed and I've never questioned any of their rights to be there because these people need a place too. But having the EV serve as the intake center for the ENTIRE city is a bridge way too far. Do your research next time and maybe you'll be able to speak intelligently on the subject.
Patapsco Jones has it exactly right. In fact we must be neighbors. His experience is the same as mine and there is nothing NIMBY about it. We have lived with many homeless as well as mentally ill and recovering junkies who, pre Reagan and somewhat during later admins, were housed in half way houses and SROs that lined the Bowery where they had the dignity of a room, community and were possibly being cared for. Anon 1:30 PM you would not know about that because you, or more likely your parents given your snark, would rarely come to the neighborhood like it used to be or know the history of the area. With the massive overcrowding of the intake shelters and services as pushed through with this "emergency" measure this is quality of life issue about a huge influx in a neighborhood with a large residential and homeless population already, versus another shelter and more services or two, and nothing about NIMBY.
*Yawn* we have all lived here for decades now including a few years on that very block during the good/bad old days. I certainly know the area and the history and the economics. Also I'm not your pal but the level of vitriol in your posts on this issue seems disproportionate to one NIMBY comment seeing as how we've never even met. Unless, of course, NIMBY.
Wouldn't stuff like who are the people sponsoring campaigns for or against this be germane to Grieve's coverage?
Someone's death resulting from being torn from his place of refuge "smells like NIMBY" to you Jose?
What does Trish Goff's background have to do with the fact that this shelter is slated to become an intake center for every homeless man in the 5 boroughs + men bussed in from Rikers? As a 40 year resident of the EV I am grateful that she is spearheading this initiative (and somehow funding the law suit).This will be a disaster for our neighborhood,.The crime statistics from the Bellevue area shelter are double and in some categories triple of the 9th Pct's. These men (estimated to be 100+ a day will be flooding our neighborhood. People are afraid.
As a further comment...I recognized many of the homeless men in the neighborhood from the shelter. I never knew their names but I hope one of my "regulars' was not poor Steven Rosa. I would leave my apartment every day with few dollars in my pocket for whoever asked. They would often come across 2nd Avenue when they saw me. I was happy to give them a dollar and a smile.Did we love shelter - not really but their residents were part of our community. The city has literally torn these men from their only safe refuge. We are not NIMBYs Jose. We are not against the shelter.We are against the Intake Center that has displaced needy men and will bring increased crime to our neighborhood. Each borough needs their own intake center..
Agreed-each borough needs their own intake center. The East Village is already flooded with homelessness and residents have good reason to be worried.
Put your money where your mouth is - start a petition to have the housing moved onto your street.
Harebrained logic like this trips over the hypocrisy of the person saying it. So anyone who isn’t living in abject poverty is unjustified in complaining about something legitimately bad? All people with money (some may have actually earned it!) are bad too? Do you even live here in the EV??
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