“Under–The-Radar” Shelter proposal Next To Elementary School Sheds Light on NYC’s Housing Process
Published on the NYCity News Service on Monday, October 28, 2024
A men-only shelter that would share a wall with Peck Slip Elementary School is in the works in Manhattan’s Seaport district — and the community is furious. Neighbors say the city kept the proposal under wraps for far too long and didn’t consult the community at any point in the process.
Members of Manhattan’s first Community District addressed the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) at a Sept. 18 board meeting, calling the city’s intentions and lack of transparency into question.
The proposed shelter location at 320 Pearl Street and Peck Slip School’s adjoining wall.
The 106-bed shelter set to open in early 2025 would house individuals who have struggled in other shelter programs. It would be a designated “Safe Haven,” meaning the shelter would not require criminal background checks, sobriety, or identification for entry. It would share a wall with the elementary school, and the shelter’s smoking courtyard would be located directly below school windows.
The 320 Pearl St. location, just two blocks from the FDR in Manhattan’s Seaport neighborhood, is another example of the city’s real estate process that allows private developers to purchase and flip cheap lots into shelter sites, without input from the local community or substantive demographic research.
“We support the mayor’s initiative to provide housing for the homeless. We just don’t want this shelter attached to an elementary school. It’s unsafe,” said Kenny Grant, a parent of two children, one of whom attends Peck Slip P.S. 343 as a kindergartener.
Slate Property Group purchased the former Hampton Inn at 320 Pearl Street on Dec. 14, 2023, with mortgage finance assistance from Mizuho Capital Markets LLC. Breaking Ground, the nonprofit housing provider, joined the developer to bring a public proposal to the city in January, said Christopher Gonzalez, DHS’ chief strategy officer.
The community didn’t learn about the proposal until the next summer, and a FOIL request filed by a member of the parent community for the location’s permit records has still not been made public.
“This flew completely under the radar. There is no trust [with the city] right now,” said District 1 City Council Member Christopher Marte, addressing Gonzalez at the Sept. 18 meeting.
New York City has always been a home to immigrants and their families. Since 2022, more than 210,000 immigrants have come to New York City, some of which have come to the city because of New York’s right-to-shelter law. Others have been sent by bus or plane by Republican governors looking to elicit outrage from their Democratic counterparts.
From 2023 to 2024, there has been a 37 percent increase in the number of school-aged children in shelters according to DHS records, but a 2024 survey shows that only 10 percent of Manhattan shelter beds are designated for families with school-aged children that require long-term stays.
Parents at Peck Slip say they have seen an increase in immigrant children at the school in the last year, sparking questions about what the city is doing to help house their families.
“You need to explain to the families of the school who have migrant children living in a hotel why a shelter for families cannot be done,” said Tammy Meltzer, District 1 Community Board Chairperson.
Recent immigrants are ineligible for housing in Safe Havens under shelter terms. In order to gain a spot at a Safe Haven, a homeless person must be “sighted” three times by outreach teams and live on the streets for nine months within a recent two-year period.
Immigrants like Maria, who came from Guatemala with her two teen children, have been relying on limited, 60-day hotel stays in New York City. The stay limit was issued to all families with children who arrived in the U.S. after March 15, 2022.
“I have been at The Row hotel for almost 60 days, and came from another hotel shelter in Texas. I don’t know where we’re going to go next, but probably another hotel,” said Maria through a translator. She declined to provide her last name for fear of identification, a sentiment shared by many immigrants who fear deportation.
As immigrant families across the city lose their access to shelter, and New York’s “Right To Shelter” decree effectively no longer applies to immigrants, community members questioned the city’s shelter siting process.
“We’re not sure about the demographics for single women and children, but we have 400 homeless” males, below 14th Street, Gonzalez said. “We want to place these individuals in the place they call home.”
In order to build a shelter, providers “must demonstrate demographic need around the shelter’s location,” said Erin Madden, a Breaking Ground representative. Breaking Ground and DHS claim this need was shown through 311 calls reporting sightings of unhoused people below 14 Street, an area that spans 8 square miles and over a third of Manhattan. Breaking Ground did not respond to a request for more specific information on how they demonstrate demographic need.
“The city says they are cleaning up the area below 14 Street, but it seems like they want to move [the homeless] out of sight of tourists. I’m concerned for the safety of our seniors,” said Adam Sinovsky, president of Southbridge Towers.
Located across the street from Peck Slip, half of the residents in the 1,591-unit complex on Beekman Street are elderly.
A PASS flier calling for petition signatures posted on scaffolding near Peck Slip School.
According to a parent at Peck Slip, an undisclosed contact at the New York City Police Department said there have been 1,356 arrests within 1,000 feet of the six Manhattan Breaking Ground shelters since opening. The source said 43 percent of these arrests are sealed, meaning the records are not publicly available and only accessible to certain government agencies. The fact that arrest information around Breaking Ground shelters was partially unavailable worried parents who wanted to know more about a potential increase in crime around P.S. 343, they said.
In response to community questions about safety implications and shelter siting process, the city didn’t have many answers.
“These are, at their core, real estate transactions,” said Gonzalez. “We don’t go shopping around for different sites. These proposals are brought to us.”
But the community argues that’s not the way it should be.
“There is general frustration at the city for throwing money at shelters with exorbitant contracts when it’s not solving the affordable housing crisis,” Sinvosky said.
Under New York City’s open request for procurement (RFP) process, developers and housing providers draw up a private contract between themselves without input from the city before submitting a separate, public contract for city approval. This process creates a lack of transparency and a breeding ground for corrupt practices, said NYC Comptroller Brad Lander.
Slate Property Group has focused its efforts in recent years on developing affordable housing and homeless shelters, standing to make 8-figure profits on these long-term leases. Slate purchased the shelter site for $24.1 million and a proposed 5-year lease with Breaking Ground is set at $42 million, according to city officials.
Slate’s ties to Mayor Eric Adams, who was recently indicted under bribery and campaign finance offenses, have attracted scrutiny in the past. In 2018, co-founder of Slate Property Group David Schwartz welcomed Adams, then the Brooklyn borough president, to his company’s offices for an intimate fundraiser. After raising $20,000, Adams endorsed zoning changes sought by Slate to construct a skyscraper taller than allowed.
After the shelter proposal was made public, school parents created PeckSlip Advocates for School Safety (PASS), a 501c3 organization. They raised over $26,000 in legal defense funds for their cause. On the night of the board meeting, PASS sued to challenge the city’s proposal.
“There is still time to break this all up. We are trying to work with the city, but the mayor is in a mess right now. We’ll have to wait and see,” said Grant, the parent of two at Peck Slip.
On Oct. 9, the PTA at Peck Slip made a $10,000 donation to PASS, a move that may violate PTA spending rules. The PTA is now under investigation by The Department of Education, leaving both the city and the community embroiled in separate legal battles. Board members of PASS said they expect a response to the lawsuit in November.
