Noble Sanctuary

Homeless Shelter with Comprehensive Services Poised to Open in FiDi

A new “safe haven” homeless shelter for single adults is scheduled to open at 105 Washington Street by the end of this month. Originally announced in 2020, and initially planned to debut two years ago, the facility was delayed by the Covid pandemic and construction problems. It will be operated by the Center for Urban Community Services (CUCS), a nonprofit founded at Columbia University in the late 1970s, which focuses on affordable and supportive housing, and offers programs that link housing, health, and social services for New York’s homeless and at-risk populations. CUCS owns and operates more than 300 permanent supportive housing units, as well nearly 200 shelters throughout the New York metropolitan area.

The “safe haven” model emphasizes smaller caseloads (meaning fewer homeless people residing at a facility than would be the case in a traditional shelter) and offers “wraparound” services to clients, such as public assistance benefits coordination, housing assistance, onsite medical and psychiatric care, medication management, and employment assistance. The goal of these parallel programs is to transition shelter residents into permanent housing within six to nine months.

The Washington Street facility will contain 84 beds, a striking contrast to a more traditional homeless shelter planned for Beekman Street, which will house more than twice as many homeless individuals in a smaller building, with fewer services.

At Washington Street, each housing unit will consist of an alcove that includes a bed, a desk, and a storage cabinet, separated from adjacent units by a seven-foot-high wall that stops just short of the ceiling. Bathrooms and showers will be shared. The facility will also include onsite laundry services, and offer three meals each day. It will be open 24 hours per day, every day of the year.
CUCS has contracted with a security company to provide five guards during each eight-hour shift, around the clock. These personnel will patrol the interior of the building, as well as the street in front, while additionally screening everybody who enters, using a magnetometer and an x-ray machine. The organization has installed 99 security cameras throughout the interior and on the exterior of 105 Washington Street, which is situated between two restaurants—Schilling (109 Washington Street) and St. George Tavern (temporarily closed, at 103 Washington Street).

Homeless residents will be required to sign a “good neighbor policy,” committing them to a code of conduct before moving in. CUCS promises to work with the City’s Department of Social Services “to transfer clients who demonstrate that they require services beyond what can be provided at the Safe Haven, or who cannot or will not comply with the facility’s rules.” CUCS has further committed to excluding from 105 Washington Street Level Two and Level Three sex offenders, who are subject to residency restrictions.

Additional staff will include a licensed clinical social worker, who will serve as Program Director, supported by an Assistant Program Director and an office manager. This leadership team will be supplemented by two dozen program services staff, including social workers, case managers, and specialists in “assistance with daily living activities.”

CUCS is now recruiting homeless people to reside at 105 Washington, with a preference for those currently sleeping on the streets of Lower Manhattan, in collaboration with nonprofit partners like the Manhattan Outreach Consortium and Goddard Riverside, as well as the City’s Department of Homeless Services.

When a planned phased opening begins later this month, homeless clients will begin moving in at a staggered rate of about a dozen per week, CUCS representatives say, which will bring the facility to its full complement by the end of summer.

At a May 15 meeting of the Quality of Life Committee of Community Board 1, City Council member Chris Marte asked whether the facility would have a curfew. CUCS’s Paula Laidley, who will serve as the director of the new facility, answered that there would be no curfew, but “our model is to tell people, ‘come indoors, we’re going to work with you. This is your bed.’ And they have have 72 hours to come back. That helps with the continuity of their care. It helps with getting them off the street. And what we found in our Safe Havens program is that people come back, and they’re in their beds.”

Quality of Life Committee chair Pat Moore asked whether couples would be welcome at 105 Washington Street. Ms. Laidley said that residence at the facility was limited single adults only.

Local resident Esther Regelson said, “I’ve lived next door to 105 Washington for 40 years, and I want to express support for what you are doing, It’s really important. We have homeless people within the neighborhood who need your help. When I told one of them that you are opening soon, he was wide-eyed with excitement. Another homeless man who sleeps in Lower Manhattan is dying of cancer. This kind of help is super important.”