Hundreds of neighborhood residents joined Assemblyman William Colton (D—Gravesend, Bensonhurst, Bath Beach and Dyker Heights) and Councilmember Susan Zhuang at the site of a proposed homeless shelter at 86^th Street and 25^th Avenue on Sunday, February 11 to voice their opposition to the project.

Assemblyman Colton and Councilmember Zhuang had called a press conference to alert the public that the developer of the site, Tejpal Sandhu of 86^th Street NY LLC, had commenced work on a construction fence on the city sidewalk, and when workers were unable to produce a permit for that particular construction, the work was stopped, and the posts that had been installed were removed.

Assemblyman Colton was told of the construction activity by neighborhood residents a week after the first meeting of a task force on the issue that he and Councilmember Zhuang had formed. “I am outraged that they began this work, without being able to show their permit, on a weekend, when construction such as this is prohibited without special permission,” he said. “Even worse, they disrespected area residents by beginning construction on the first day of the Lunar New Year, when many Asian people are celebrating, which also happens to be the Jewish Sabbath. Even so, we were notified by angry residents.”

Those same residents also let friends, family and neighbors know and the crowd, which carried signs expressing their opposition to the shelter, grew by word of mouth. Also on hand were numerous community leaders, including Dr. Tim Law, the founder of the Chinese American Social Services Center; Lina Chen, president of Health Essential Association; Laurie Windsor, chairperson of Community Board 11; and Sonia Valentin, president of the 62^nd Precinct Community Council.

“I am so proud of all of you,” Assemblyman Colton told the people who filled the sidewalk and the subway stairs outside the site. “You did exactly what needed to be done. As a result, we were able to stop him from going forward.”

In particular, Assemblyman Colton focused on the fact that workers for the developer had attempted to install the construction fence on a portion of the city sidewalk. While it may once have been part of the property, Assemblyman Colton said, “I believe any rights to that part of the property were given up by the prior owners 40 years ago, and I hope the city doesn’t give away city property for the purpose of putting up a homeless shelter.”

Sandhu has filed papers with the city’s Department of Buildings to construct a 32-room hotel with a community facility attached; this the city has said it plans to use as a shelter for 150 single men, many of whom struggle with addiction or mental health issues. While a demolition permit was approved, a subsequent permit was disallowed.

According to Assemblyman Colton, the Sandhu Group makes a practice of building so-called hotels in unexpected locations then leasing them to the city at a cost of thousands of dollars per resident per month, all coming from taxpayer dollars.

“This sort of setup doesn’t help the neighborhood and it doesn’t help homeless people,” Assemblyman Colton said. “They are put into small rooms without bathrooms and they must go out into the streets all day. This isn’t helping homeless people. It’s hurting them. Our taxpayer dollars should be spent to construct permanent affordable housing and to provide necessary services, not to enrich greedy developers.”

“We won’t let them take advantage of our homeless people,” Councilmember Zhuang said. “We need places where families can live. We need to create more jobs for people. We need to give them proper training. No more human warehouses.”

“This is going to be a long battle,” Assemblyman Colton added. “It will go on for months, maybe years, because we’re not giving up.”