New York City has canceled one of three homeless shelters it planned to open in Chinatown amid fierce opposition from Chinatown residents who fear more homeless shelters will lead to a further rise in anti-Asian hate crimes, many of which are in the US. associated with the homeless.
The city will no longer open a shelter at 47 Madison Street, which is said to have housed 49 men. The cancellation comes two days after a community council in another part of Chinatown passed a resolution asking the city not to open a shelter on Grand Street. That shelter is planned in a spot around the corner from where a 35-year-old Asian-American woman was murdered in February.
The city’s decision to drop the Madison Street shelter appeared to be in response to local complaints that Chinatown is already overloaded. Julia Savel, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeless Services, said in a statement: “We have decided to move this shelter capacity to an area with fewer services and shelters for people who are homeless. Our goal is always to work with communities to understand their needs.”
All three planned shelters are of a specialized type known as safe havens or stabilization hotels, which are intended to attract people living on the streets. They typically offer more privacy and social services and less restrictions than traditional shelters, where more than 20 people can sleep in one room.
Chinatown’s opposition to the shelters poses a serious challenge to Mayor Eric Adams, who has made opening more safe havens a focal point of his efforts to remove homeless people from the subways and street camps where many seek refuge. On Sunday, he announced a proposal to open more than 900 extra beds in these types of shelters.
An increase in anti-Asian attacks
The city and supporters of the shelters have argued that attracting homeless people from the streets and connecting them to services will make neighborhoods safer, in addition to helping shelter residents change their lives.
And both the city and Community Board 3, the board that occupies 47 Madison Street, have said there is a need for more safe havens nearby. Community Board 3 had asked for more safe harbors in its annual statement of needs to the city for several years and made this request a top priority.
The city’s justification for the facility’s location, which it was required to produce under a law imposing the equitable distribution of social service programs, cited the board’s request for more safe havens.
But the opposition drumbeat in Chinatown has been loud and steady for months. At least 10 protests and rallies have been held against the shelters.
Susan Lee, the founder of the Alliance for Community Preservation and Betterment, which has opposed the shelter, called the cancellation of 47 Madison Street, which was scheduled to open in 2024 on a site in the shadow of the Manhattan Bridge, “a step in the right direction.”
But Corinne Low, executive director of the Open Hearts Initiative, a group seeking support for shelters, was critical of the city’s decision. “Opposition will not appease opponents of housing and services for homeless New Yorkers — it will only encourage them,” she said in a statement.
The other two proposed shelters, on Grand Street and on the busy shopping strip of East Broadway, have met much more opposition, but they are much further. The Grand Street facility is slated to open this spring and the East Broadway shelter next year.
The dropping of the Madison Street shelter also comes days after the city said it would close a Radisson Hotel facility in the financial district, which an advocacy group said is home to about 200 people.