A new milestone has been reached in the fight to prevent a homeless shelter from being built at 86^th Street and 25^th Avenue, as area residents have filed an appeal, supported by Assemblyman William Colton (D—Gravesend, Bensonhurst, Bath Beach and Dyker Heights) and City Councilmember Susan Zhuang (D—Bensonhurst, Bath Beach, Gravesend, Dyker Heights, Boro Park and Sunset Park), with the city’s Board of Standards & Appeals (BSA), contending that the city skirted zoning requirements in giving permits to the project’s developer.

According to the appeal, which was accepted by BSA, the city is only permitted to skip certain mandated requirements if there is already a contract for the facility; no such contract has been signed, meaning that many of the steps that the city Department of Buildings (DOB) allowed the developer at 2501 86^th Street to skip should not have been skipped.Among the requirements that were bypassed when DOB issued a demolition permit to the developer several months ago were gas shutoff, water shutoff, electrical disconnection, sewer capping, rodent control, notifications to neighbors and Community Board 11, photos and safety documentation, and pre-demolition inspection, as well as the mandatory DEP stormwater permit, all of which are normally mandatory. The BSA appeal was filed on December 24, 2025 and accepted by BSA on December 30.

“The city has deliberately bent over backwards to accommodate the developer,” said Assemblyman Colton, “and in so doing has not only disrespected the community, but has disregarded its own regulations. We have a new mayor, and it’s long past time that the city listen to area residents and businesspeople who understand the devastating effect that such a facility would have, both on the surrounding community and on the homeless people who would be housed there, and who generally object to being warehoused in facilities that are often unsafe. By skirting its own requirements, the city is setting up a situation where, if the developer goes ahead and builds the facility, but a contract is not eventually issued, the neighborhood will be left with an unwanted eyesore that was built without the appropriate precautions having been taken, which is, quite frankly, completely unacceptable.”

Opposition to the shelter plan has been strong and sustained since the city announced in late 2023 that it planned to open a homeless shelter for 150 single men at the location, which is on a busy shopping strip, near homes, religious institutions, day care centers and senior centers. Numerous protests over the course of several months drew thousands of protesters, both at the site and at City Hall, and in the summer of 2024, daily protests at the site commenced.

In addition, tens of thousands of people have signed a petition in opposition to the plan, which the elected officials say would devastate the community without actually benefiting the homeless people it is ostensibly being built to serve, just to enrich greedy developers and shelter operators; a better solution, they insist, is using the billions of taxpayer dollars now funneled into the shelter system to build permanent affordable housing with supportive services.

On January 22, Community Board 11’s Planning and Zoning Committee held a meeting and voted unanimously (with one recusal) in support of a motion contending that, “If approvals are issued to develop transient accommodations without an active contract, then they should be subject to a City Planning Commission special permit and public review.” The motion will be voted on by the full board, whose actions are advisory only, at its February meeting.

The fight will continue until the community triumphs, the two elected officials vowed.

“When my community came to my office with stacks of records that demonstrated clear negligence and corruption by the city and developer, I was floored,” said Councilmember Zhuang. “We first fought about the process because city government only notified us of an incoming homeless shelter after the decision was made for us, not with us. That started before I took office. Now we see disregard for our immigrant community continued through every step of the development process.”

“We will not give up,” Assemblyman Colton said. “We are going to keep asking questions and raising objections till the city and the developer finally understand that we will persist till we have won.”

The meeting was held at Health Essentials, 2336 86^th Street.