by Jen G On Thursday 1/24, a crowd of nearly forty Greenpointers gathered at Greenpoint Church to discuss the recently opened Homeless Respite. Pastor Ann asked that all press and bloggers reveal the publication and keep off the record comments off the record. It was a neighborly forum and while the night had some very difficult and uncomfortable moments, important progress was made.
(For the record, no one spoke off the record, but I did not directly quote or…
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Nice job.
One of the reasons why I love Greenpoint is that it is a real community, one with active churches, and one with homeless drunks who aren’t just ignored. These men are part of our community, too. In caring for them, we honor our wonderful neighborhood.
“Burden” ???, more people having to deal with the STIGMA that comes with poverty.
If you had 10 people living in your house rent free – regardless of them being homeless – would that be a burden on your resources? Yes. If they are on your block possibly defecating on your lawn – would you consider that a burden? Yes.
The situation is the burden. And those are the words that were used to describe the situations that Milton St residents have to deal with.
Good job reporting on a meeting that was obviously highly charged. When I moved the area 16 years ago, I remember being intimidated to walk through the park on my way to the running track because of the drunk men sleeping on the benches. Sadly, every winter there were reports of men dying in the park from exposure. No doubt that Greenpoint Church agreed to participate in this program to save some of these men, which is an extremely commendable and brave act!
Greenpoint is developing in a strange patchwork fashion; while the development of some parts of the neighborhood have been thought through, others remain ignored. Perhaps it’s the rapid growth of Greenpoint that’s caught all of us off guard, but there is a seeming lack of discussion around povery, community development, homelessness, housing, small business support, etc. Our community infrastructure has not caught up with our present circumstances.
I’d like to encourage CM Levin, State Senator Squadron, and Assemblymember Lentol to invest some $ to conduct a community assessment/development process to engage Greenpoint residents to openly discuss our issues and concerns, and to seek out possible solutions. These problems will not go away by themselves. In fact, the rift between those with and without will grow to further divide our lovely community.
It should also be mentioned that the representatives of DHS, Common Ground, Levin and the pastors of the church are open to any suggestions anyone has of a better place to host the respite, or any better place to host their soup kitchen and food pantry services. They feed 600 people a week and recently had to hire someone to run the services full time. Many people suggested alternatives, such as all of the empty churches, of which there are several, and St. Cyril’s School, which is closed, but those options were explored and the owners of the property either couldn’t accommodate the programs, or they were unwilling.
I heard St. Cyril’s (the school) is becoming housing. And St. Cyril’s (the church) pastor has previously said there’s no room.
Sherry, as DHS/Common Ground cannot pay for rent, finding a space that is willing to not only take on this subset of the larger community but also with only a portion of the additional utilities that are used being reimbursed to the landlord (for lack of a better word)… well you can imagine why it’s hard to find a place. Many suggestions were brought up at the meeting for different venues, but as everyone was reminded the ONLY two places (not just churches but ANY venue) that was willing to take it on was first Church of the Ascension (before they had to pull out due to construction work) and then Greenpoint Reformed who originally said no.