DEFENDING THE INDEFENSIBLE

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This column, from the weekly opinion piece MATTER OF FACT, first appeared on BrooklynReporter.com, the Home Reporter and Spectator dated August 9, 2024

Morning after morning, day after day, protesters line 86th Street near 25th Avenue, at the site of a new shelter due to open in 2025. Those objecting to the construction of the site oppose the shelter, in general, but recent complaints have claimed that construction work is beginning too early, in violation of permit stipulations.

I have passed by the site on many mornings recently, seeing – and hearing – the protesters. It appears that, because of difficulties accessing the site due to the demonstrations, contractors may have begun to enter the property earlier to avoid those complications. Protesters claim construction is beginning before 7am, which creates excessive noise too early with residential blocks nearby. So, demonstrators bang drums and chant loudly, which can be heard from blocks away, to protest the noise from the work at the site.

There can be, and almost always are, valid concerns about any shelter site that is to be introduced into a community. I have spoken with people who express that while they believe shelters are needed and we must find a way to help house the unhoused, they cannot understand how the community does not at least have an opportunity to first provide feedback on the proposal, like what happens when a park is to be renovated. They are frustrated that the kind of process that exists for granting licenses to cannabis shops, where the community board first gets to give a recommendation in which they can object due to a site’s proximity to a school, church or business that caters primarily to children, is not part of the process for new shelter locations.

That being said, there has been a problem in Southern Brooklyn, in which any location for any kind of shelter is met with a “not in my neighborhood” response from vocal members of the community. In 2023 and 2024 demonstrations were held at the site of a proposed shelter at the Kings Highway and West 13 Street. Unlike the new 86th Street site that is planned to house single men, the Kings Highway Shelter would have been only for families with children, with priority given to those living in the area.

Assemblyman Colton, whose office is just across the street from that proposed Kings Highway shelter site, organized and led the protests against it. Construction never began and the for sale signs on the plywood around the dirt pit that remains indicate the plan was scuttled. Colton has said that a homeless shelter “would not help solve the homeless crisis,” seeming to ignore the reality that there are people in southern Brooklyn without permanent housing right now.

Even though the shelter system typically assists more than 300 individuals from Community Boards 10 and 11 – covering Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst, Gravesend, and Bath Beach – per year, those have been the only two community districts in all of Brooklyn with no shelter beds at all.

Assemblymember and Brooklyn Democratic Party Chair, Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn has been vocal that communities such as those in southern Brooklyn that have avoided having shelter beds in their areas, need to do their part, releasing a statement about the matter last September. However, a recent situation centered around the 86th Street shelter site has been contrary to the position she has stated.

Former Colton staffer and new city councilmember as of this year, Susan Zhuang, was very involved in the protests against the Kings Highway shelter site. She has been even more so with respect to the 86th Street location. On July 17, videos taken from a protest at the site indicated that after becoming physical with police officers and resisting ensuing attempts to cuff her, Zhuang bit a police chief. The NYPD shared video of the incident and alleged biting, along with photos of the injured officer’s arm. Zhuang was charged with several offenses, including felony assault.

“After 31 years on the job, I’ve never been bitten, and I can’t believe someone would just bite another human being… I can’t imagine someone would want to have somebody else’s blood in their mouth… I at least thought there would be an apology or acknowledgement of what happened, but she keeps doubling down.”

Deputy Chief Frank DiGiacomo, police officer Councilmember Zhuang has been charged with assaulting via a bite to his arm

Though this alleged assault resulted from an elected official protesting the creation of a shelter in southern Brooklyn, the person who has been most seen publicly defending her actions has been Bichotte Hermelyn, the Brooklyn political figure that has called on southern Brooklyn elected officials to not stand in the way of shelters coming to southern Brooklyn.

A July 29 article in The City detailed how recent efforts from Zhuang to unseat Democratic Party District Leaders not considered loyal to Bichotte Hermelyn, and replacing them with Zhuang-backed candidates that will help ensure Bichotte Hermelyn is reelected party chair, are the obvious reason for what would otherwise be an inexplicable flip-flop on this issue.

Our neighbors who need shelter, as well as community members with valid concerns about how that is accomplished, deserve serious leaders with serious beliefs who are looking for serious solutions, not craven, self-interested politicians and attention-seekers who will abandon their stances in the interest of self-preservation or incite spectacles of rage in the interest of self-promotion.