A city councilman wants to take the politics out of locating homeless shelters by having an independent commission decide where new ones should be built.
“This isn’t happening just in one neighborhood, but it’s happening all across the city,” Councilman David Greenfield told the Daily News. “I think it will be a lot easier to get done than the way we have to get it done right now, which is piecemeal.”
Greenfield will introduce a bill Thursday to create a 15-member commission, made up of 5 appointees from the mayor, 5 from the City Council speaker, and one by each of the 5 borough presidents. The commission — which would have to be approved by voters at a referendum — was inspired by the independent board that determines which military bases face closure, another political can of worms.
“It’s an ambitious solution for what is essentially a political problem, where the politics of placing homeless shelters prevents them from getting built and we’re always playing catch up,” Greenfield said.
Currently, the mayor has the power to site homeless shelters, and has said he will build 90 new ones in communities across the city. But the proposals often meet resistance from community groups and their local elected officials — in Maspeth, Queens, residents shouted down the mayor’s homelessness commissioner when he proposed turning a hotel to a shelter; in Crown Heights, residents have argued they are already overburdened.
Greenfield, chair of the land use committee, said he’s frequently been approached by members asking why their district is being asked to build a shelter.
“When it comes to your neighborhood, you think you’re the only one getting a homeless shelter, but the likelihood is everyone eventually is going to get a homeless shelter,” he said.
And using an independent commission to outline one large plan for all the shelters at once would make that more clear, Greenfield said.
Still, unless building one requires a zoning change, the mayor doesn’t currently need anyone’s approval to build shelters — so it’s unclear whether he would support ceding that power to a commission.
“Homeless New Yorkers come from every community, which is why the bold and equitable plan the Mayor laid out earlier this year to open 90 new sites across the five boroughs establishes community as its guiding principle,” spokeswoman Jaclyn Rothenberg said. “All politics aside: we believe the best way to help homeless families get back on their feet is by offering them the opportunity to be sheltered closer to the essential anchors of life and communities they used to call home.”
Greenfield argued his commission would make that process easier.
“He keeps getting pushback in the political process and therefore it becomes very difficult to get that done and literally they have to fight for every one,” he said.
