{"id":2001,"date":"2026-05-14T13:15:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T17:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mtopp.org\/?p=2001"},"modified":"2026-08-31T13:35:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T17:35:35","slug":"the-city-answers-questions-about-ramada-shelter-on-empire-blvd-at-cb9s-town-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mtopp.org\/index.php\/2026\/05\/14\/the-city-answers-questions-about-ramada-shelter-on-empire-blvd-at-cb9s-town-hall\/","title":{"rendered":"The City Answers Questions about Ramada Shelter on Empire Blvd at CB9’s Town Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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Over\u00a0<\/span>400 people<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>from the community came out to\u00a0<\/span>CB9\u2019s Town Hall meeting on Tuesday May 12th<\/a><\/span>, to gain information and express their frustration over the proposed opening of the Ramada Shelter located at 169 Empire Blvd serviced by\u00a0<\/span>“Project Renewal”.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The main concern was the\u00a0<\/span>lack of transparency, lack of due process,<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>no consideration for existing private and public shelters, schools and supportive housing. The\u00a0<\/span>unfair practice of placing shelters in predominantly communities of color,<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>while other communities have no shelters and the intention of\u00a0<\/span>demonstrating at the Mayor\u2019s Office and filing a lawsuit.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Details
\n<\/strong>Site Details and Lack of Services<\/h4>\n

The site will be open\u00a0<\/span>sometime in the Summe<\/strong>r<\/em>, 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 \u00a0(mental illness and chemically addicted) at 30th street in Manhattan that has structural safety issues.<\/p>\n

There will be\u00a0<\/span>no support services<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>for the chemically addicted or mentally ill. There will be\u00a0<\/span>no drug testing<\/strong>, no background checks and no services on site to address the psychological or emotional well being of the men nor any dispensing of medication.<\/p>\n

The site itself contains\u00a0<\/span>single rooms smaller than jail cells<\/strong>, with 2 twin bed, one chair, one desk, two small draws, no closet and nowhere to store one’s clothes. The\u00a0<\/span>cafeteria holds the capacity of\u00a0<\/span>9<\/em><\/u>\u00a0<\/span>people<\/strong>, there is only one room that holds the maximum capacity of\u00a0<\/span>22 people<\/strong>. There is no space for\u00a0<\/span>recreational services, no conference room, no kitchen, no restaurant, and no parking<\/strong>. The lobby itself holds the legal capacity of 22 people.<\/p>\n

Thus, this \u201chotel\u201d was never meant to be a hospitality enterprise but was\u00a0built as a shelter, like dozens of others that are popping up all over the city in communities of color, under a\u00a0<\/span>Bait and Switch model<\/strong>. It opened its doors as a\u00a0<\/span>Ramada\u00a0hotel on April 17, 2025<\/strong>, and the community was given notice of its\u00a0<\/span>conversion to a shelter on April 17, 2026.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Project Renewal and Money<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Project Renewal\u2019s top management is making from $200,000 to $400,000 a year<\/strong>, and has a \u201ccontract\u201d with the City, which the City and Councilperson Crystal Hudson can’t produce, rumored to be at $500,000,000.<\/p>\n

How the City Came to Choose This Site<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The\u00a0<\/span>only reason<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>the site was selected was because\u00a0<\/span>it can be opened immediately as a shelter<\/strong>, 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\u00a0<\/span>Barbara Klieman Shelter in Greenpoint.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

No Fair Share Analysis Performed<\/strong><\/h5>\n

No Fair Share analysis was conducted. \u00a0The city claims it\u00a0will conduct one but what every the results of that analysis will be they will not change their decision to open the shelter.<\/p>\n

The site location itself and its affects upon the population was not considered, including the\u00a0<\/span>Battered Women\u2019s shelte<\/strong>r a few feet away, the\u00a0<\/span>senior citizen center right next door<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>and the\u00a0<\/span>elementally, middle school less than a 1,000 feet away<\/strong>, the State\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

The city claimed it\u00a0<\/span>did not have information on what other\u00a0existing shelters are run by the city that are present in the\u00a0community.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

No Fair Distribution of Shelters<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The City claimed that\u00a0<\/span>neighborhoods\u00a0and boroughs that have no shelters or just one (Staten Island),<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>will be getting shelters but for now\u00a0<\/span>one<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>City Council District, (Rita Joseph\u2019s District 40 ) will get\u00a0<\/span>all<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>of the men from Bellevue Center<\/strong>. One right across the street from the famous\u00a0<\/span>Kings Theater and 400 feet away from an existing MICA shelter and the other on Empire Blvd.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>Both are apart of the \u201cHotel to Shelter Scam\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Security and Safety<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The Security guards with limited training will be responsible to\u00a0<\/span>first protect its staff members and then the clients<\/strong>, however in serious cases of assault, drug usage etc. the police will be called to handle it.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/span>no coordination or notification given to the local police department<\/strong>, nor any additional support will be given to them.<\/p>\n

An \u201cAdvisory Committee<\/strong>\u201d will be created, with no\u00a0<\/span>information on who will be on it, how it will be populated, when it will be created and what power it will have<\/strong>. However, it will be the same\u00a0<\/span>worthless<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>Advisory Committee currently in effect at the\u00a0<\/span>MICA (mentally ill and chemically addicted) men\u2019s shelter located at 21 Dureya Place 400 feet away from Kings Theatre.<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over\u00a0400 people\u00a0from the community came out to\u00a0CB9\u2019s 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\u00a0“Project Renewal”.\u00a0 The main concern was the\u00a0lack of transparency, lack of due process,\u00a0no consideration for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-updates","category-eyes-on-cb9"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mtopp.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mtopp.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mtopp.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mtopp.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mtopp.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2001"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mtopp.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2003,"href":"https:\/\/mtopp.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2001\/revisions\/2003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mtopp.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mtopp.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mtopp.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}