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Over 400 people from the community came out to CB9’s Town Hall meeting on Tuesday May 12th, to gain information and express their frustration over the proposed opening of the Ramada Shelter located at 169 Empire Blvd serviced by “Project Renewal”.
The main concern was the lack of transparency, lack of due process, no consideration for existing private and public shelters, schools and supportive housing. The unfair practice of placing shelters in predominantly communities of color, while other communities have no shelters and the intention of demonstrating at the Mayor’s Office and filing a lawsuit.
Details
Site Details and Lack of Services
The site will be open sometime in the Summer, no date given despite repeated request for more details. It will house 110 single men (that number changed from 140), coming from the Bellevue/single MICA men shelter (mental illness and chemically addicted) at 30th street in Manhattan that has structural safety issues.
There will be no support services for the chemically addicted or mentally ill. There will be no drug testing, no background checks and no services on site to address the psychological or emotional well being of the men nor any dispensing of medication.
The site itself contains single rooms smaller than jail cells, with 2 twin bed, one chair, one desk, two small draws, no closet and nowhere to store one’s clothes. The cafeteria holds the capacity of 9 people, there is only one room that holds the maximum capacity of 22 people. There is no space for recreational services, no conference room, no kitchen, no restaurant, and no parking. The lobby itself holds the legal capacity of 22 people.
Thus, this “hotel” was never meant to be a hospitality enterprise but was built as a shelter, like dozens of others that are popping up all over the city in communities of color, under a Bait and Switch model. It opened its doors as a Ramada hotel on April 17, 2025, and the community was given notice of its conversion to a shelter on April 17, 2026.
Project Renewal and Money
Project Renewal’s top management is making from $200,000 to $400,000 a year, and has a “contract” with the City, which the City and Councilperson Crystal Hudson can’t produce, rumored to be at $500,000,000.
How the City Came to Choose This Site
The only reason the site was selected was because it can be opened immediately as a shelter, despite dozens of shelters that are closing all over the city as the migrant crisis is over. And the fact that these homeless men at the Bellevue shelter have already been moved to alternate sites, such as the Barbara Klieman Shelter in Greenpoint.
No Fair Share Analysis Performed
No Fair Share analysis was conducted. The city claims it will conduct one but what every the results of that analysis will be they will not change their decision to open the shelter.
The site location itself and its affects upon the population was not considered, including the Battered Women’s shelter a few feet away, the senior citizen center right next door and the elementally, middle school less than a 1,000 feet away, the State’s Vital Brooklyn with plans to build 6 towers of shelters, and all of the other public and private shelters and supportive housing that are already in the community.
The city claimed it did not have information on what other existing shelters are run by the city that are present in the community.
No Fair Distribution of Shelters
The City claimed that neighborhoods and boroughs that have no shelters or just one (Staten Island), will be getting shelters but for now one City Council District, (Rita Joseph’s District 40 ) will get all of the men from Bellevue Center. One right across the street from the famous Kings Theater and 400 feet away from an existing MICA shelter and the other on Empire Blvd. Both are apart of the “Hotel to Shelter Scam”.
Security and Safety
The Security guards with limited training will be responsible to first protect its staff members and then the clients, however in serious cases of assault, drug usage etc. the police will be called to handle it.
Once the shelter men hit the streets it will be up to the police to handle them. There will be no support from “Project Renewal’s” security. There has been no coordination or notification given to the local police department, nor any additional support will be given to them.
An “Advisory Committee” will be created, with no information on who will be on it, how it will be populated, when it will be created and what power it will have. However, it will be the same worthless Advisory Committee currently in effect at the MICA (mentally ill and chemically addicted) men’s shelter located at 21 Dureya Place 400 feet away from Kings Theatre. |
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