Shelter Fallout

City Hall Plans to Open a Third Homeless Shelter in Lower Manhattan

The administration of Mayor Eric Adams has notified Lower Manhattan elected officials and community leaders that it intends to open a homeless shelter for single men at a former hotel at 320 Pearl Street. The building adjoins the Peck Slip School.

The City’s Department of Social Services (DSS) and Department of Homeless Services (DHS) sent this notification on June 14, with an advisory that the new shelter will open this autumn.

Community leaders say that opening this facility in such a compressed timeframe could be construed as an indication that DHS and DSS have been working on this plan for a considerable length of time, and may have held back the legally required notification until the last possible moment in order to forestall community opposition.

At the meeting of Community Board 1 (CB1) last night (June 25), chair Tammy Meltzer said, “the notification was sent at the end of the school year with only six and a half school calendar days left. The school’s Parent-Teacher Association does not operate in the summer and CB1 does not meet in August. Notice this short prevents any real opportunity for significant public engagement for this facility.”

She added, “the notice CB1 received did not acknowledge that there is a kindergarten-through-fifth grade public school next door, with an entrance just 40 feet from the new shelter… And it was factually inaccurate, describing the new facility as the first ‘safe haven’ shelter in our district, when another is in the process of opening right now.” This was a reference to a new shelter at 105 Washington Street, which is slated to begin welcoming residents by the end of this month.

“Safe haven” shelters have less restrictive rules and fewer selection criteria than traditional facilities for unhoused persons. They are described in DHS material as tailored for individuals “who may be resistant to accepting or who may not be best served by other services.”

Along with the shelter at 105 Washington Street, the Adams administration is also planning to open a new shelter at 41-43 Beekman Street (near the corner of William Street), which is across the street from the Spruce Street School.

Pat Moore, who chairs CB1’s Quality of Life and Service Delivery Committee noted that the Board is not opposed to a homeless shelter at 320 Pearl Street, but is concerned about which subset of the unhoused population will occupy the 100-plus beds planned for the new facility. “The Peck Slip School already has dozens of homeless and migrant kids enrolled as students, and they have said there is room for more. A shelter for homeless families right next door would make a lot more sense,” she said.

At last night’s meeting, CB1 enacted a resolution demanding the DHS and DSS delay the planned opening of the shelter at 320 Pearl Street, change its target population from single adults to families with children, and engage in meaningful consultation with all stakeholders before presenting the community with a fait accompli.