The Kings County Supreme Court granted a request for a Temporary Restraining Order on a men's shelter in Sheepshead Bay at 3218 Emmons Avenue on July 24. The order comes after ongoing battles over homeless shelters in Brooklyn, and restricts anymore single adult men from moving into the shelter.
The request was part of a lawsuit filed by City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, Assemblymember Kalman Yeger, Community Board 15 Chairwoman Theresa Scavo, and other community members. There will be a hearing in August.
Located in the Gold Star Inn, the shelter was used for families with children. Councilwoman Vernikov said there was no notice or community input about this conversion.
According to the New York City Administrative Code, it is required to "process for the notification of new homeless shelters, other than short-term emergency homeless shelters. Such notification shall include elected officials and the community board for the district in which the proposed shelter is to be sited."
"The city's position is that because it was already a shelter they don't need to give us a notice," Vernikov said. "But our position is that they do because this significantly changes the character of the shelter."
Lloyd M. Eisenberg, the plaintiff's attorney, told BK Reader that the case is not a NIMBY issue, and Sheepshead Bay already has other homeless shelters near the Gold Star Inn.
According to Vernikov, the homeless need to be housed, get help finding jobs and be treated for any mental illness. But she also pointed out that the location is a residential area with playgrounds and senior centers nearby. With 43 single men already living at the Gold Star Inn, there have been incidents of them loitering and yelling. Vernikov said that there is a chance some of the men may have criminal records and even added no one knows if any of the men are sex offenders.
Neha Sharma, press secretary for the city's Department of Social Services Press Relations and Communications said the agency is looking to phase out commercial hotels being used as shelters so those families could be placed in more appropriate sites. The DSS is also working on closing substandard shelters.
"This transition [families with children to men] has delivered better outcomes for the New Yorkers in our care while allowing us to ensure that we are optimizing existing capacity to meet the city's right to shelter mandate," Sharma said in a statement. "Nearly 90% of the families with children from this site have been placed in better facilities with in-unit kitchens and other amenities. This also brings us one step closer to our goal of phasing out the use of commercial hotels for families."
Sharma said criticism toward Mayor Zohran Mamdani's handling of homeless shelters is unreasonable because the current shelter system was put together by former Mayor Eric Adams and his administration.
"From day one, the Mayor has taken decisive action to transform the system by beginning to phase out the use of commercial hotels for families with children, aging or substandard facilities, like Bellevue and Bruckner, that are unsafe for single adults, and equitably siting new, high-quality shelters," Sharma said. "We are committed to creating safer, dignified settings for all the populations we serve, which includes placing more families in facilities that better support their needs."
