A city plan to open a migrant shelter at a church in Staten Island has sparked outrage — with the borough president framing it Monday as a betrayal that would “hurt this community and the people.”
The proposal will place 15 cots inside the Faith United Methodist Church on Heberton Avenue in Port Richmond, which would then be an overnight haven for single adult men seeking asylum in the US, a bipartisan group of pols said at a press conference outside the house of worship.
Staten Island Borough PresidentVito Fossella said local officials weren’t told about the plan until last week — and he believes that by opening the site, the city will be “hurting this community and the people.”
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“Some people in this community wake up every day trying to figure out, ‘How do we make Portland Richmond better? How do we make the North Shore better?’” he told reporters.
“And then along comes the agencies, [which] say, ‘Guess what? Here’s a way we can make it better: We’re gonna’ dump a migrant shelter right in the middle of your neighborhood,’” Fossella said.
“How is that any degree of common sense? It’s not … we have to stand andfightback.”
It’s not the first time Staten Islanders have protested a migrant shelter in their midst as the city continues to grapple with a lengthy, expensive crisis that’s left about 65,000 migrants in the Big Apple’s care.
Last October, residents applauded as dozens of migrants were pulled out of the controversial St. John’s Villa Academy shelter, just days after the FDNY declared the building a fire hazard.
In January, a Rosebank pastor scrapped plans to build a 57-bed migrant shelter in the parish hall at St. John’s Episcopal Church near the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge after “disturbing threats from anti-immigrant groups,” according to SILive.com.
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“At Saint John’s Church, our mission is rooted in compassion,” the Rev. Hank Tuell wrote in a community email, the outlet said. “But while we were working to fulfill our duty to feed the hungry, care for the sick, and welcome the stranger, I received disturbing threats from anti-immigrant groups, who were sadly encouraged by several of our officials.”
Councilwoman Kamillah Hanks, a Staten Island Democrat, said at the press conference that the Faith United Methodist shelter will be managed by the Mayor’s Office of Housing Recovery — and it will give migrants meals, a bed and a shower from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. every day.
“We stand here today as elected officials on behalf of our constituency, to vehemently, vehemently oppose the opening of this migrant shelter — just as we did to oppose the last shelter in a faith-based emergency site … that was opening in January in Rosebank of this year,” Hanks said outside the church.
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“The residents of this district are tired — they’re tired of constantly waking up one day to find that an institution they trusted has made the decision that they feel will have a negative impact on their community and their safety,” she continued.
“We deserve a reasonable expectation that communities will be provided with adequate notice and will not intentionally keep us in the dark while decisions are made.”
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Hanks added that she didn’t think Faith United was designed to work as a shelter, since it lacks the infrastructure and facilities to “safely and comfortably house occupants.”
This could lead to severe health and safety risks, including fires, poor ventilation and exposure to harmful materials, she said.
“This approach the administration is taking is changing the fabric of our communities, undermining the trust and stability that these houses of worship have historically provided,” Hanks said.
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“And while the people of Staten Island — including myself and the people that stand behind me — have boundless compassion and charity, our resources are not.”
Republican Councilman David Carr echoed this, saying he believed churches are “thoroughly unsuitable” to serve as shelters and the city had no legal obligation to “provide shelter for all of these people who literally just arrived here.”
“We should be talking about closing shelters, winding them down, not opening up new ones like the one that they intend to put behind us,” he said.
“I’m not just against migrant shelters in my backyard,” Carr continued. “I’m against migrant shelters in everyone’s backyard.”
James Smith, of the Port Richmond North Shore Alliance, said he wanted to know what “unknown entity” wanted to open the shelter and “capitalize on other people’s misfortunes.”
“I see an immigrant population that’s working very hard and trying to educate their children and live in this community,” Smith said.
“But now I see another entity, an unknown entity … who is trying to open this shelter and, in doing so, inflict pain on a wonderful community that’s trying to succeed under all these difficult circ*mstances,” he continued.
“Who are these people who were doing this? I don’t think any of us really know.”
