The outrage was on the part of local residents who, at a Community Board 7 housing committee meeting inside the Bedford Park Senior Center, vehemently opposed the opening of a new homeless shelter on Briggs Avenue, directly across the street from PS 8. Teachers, parents and other residents found out about the shelter only after it began taking in homeless families on Christmas Eve.
The apologies came from Peter Rivera, the director of the firm, Aguila, Inc., that manages the new facility (and several others in the city), who said he took "ownership" for making the mistake of not coming to the community sooner. "Mea culpa," he said, trying to explain, but was soon drowned out by a chorus of angry yelling.
This story is a can of worms that we'll only open slightly on the blog today, but here's a few notes of interest.
-The homeless shelter will cater only to homeless families -- parents with children. However, there is no guarantee that the residents will not have prior criminal records (something residents were extremely apprehensive about). Most of the families currently in the building are single mothers with their kids.
-One woman, who's 91-year-old father lives in the building, said the families all seem "earnest" and that conditions and the atmosphere of the building had greatly improved in the past few months.
-The building, 3001 Briggs Ave., has a terrible history of housing violations and landlord neglect.
-There may be evidence that previous tenants were harassed out of the building to make way for the homeless shelter. If the evidence is compelling, the Dept. of Homeless Services says it will terminate the contract with Aguila and move the transitional residents elsewhere.
-If the evidence is not compelling, it's very unlikely DHS will terminate the contract or move the facility elsewhere simply based on residents' complaints.
-PS 8 teachers are worried the influx of children from the shelter will overburden an already vastly overcrowded elementary school. But only one child from the center has enrolled at PS 8 and they have yet to show up for school.
-Housing advocates say the bigger issue, aside form overcrowding or bringing in criminal elements to the neighborhood, is that the city is knowingly taking away affordable, rent-stabilized housing, and replacing it with transitional housing. This only perpetuates one of the main factors of homelessness, which is a lack of affordable housing.
-Rivera, the son of Bronx Assemblyman Peter Rivera, did not lose his cool once, despite an incredible amount of anger and animosity directed at him. He also couldn't explain why he didn't come to the community beforehand or how the building became empty and available for lease as a homeless shelter.
-The owners of the building, Briggs Realty, LLC, declined to show for the meeting.
-In the end, the CB7 housing committee said it would not support the new shelter and they would bring it up at the next general board meeting, Feb. 17, at the Bronx Library Center. At that meeting, they will also discuss Rivera's plan to open a similar shelter just a couple of blocks away at 2903 Valentine Ave.
