The city must find a new site for a homeless shelter it plans to open across the road from a Kensington elementary school, say locals who rallied in front of the McDonald Avenue building on Monday.
The rabble rousers claim they don’t object to the forthcoming refuge — which the city says will house families with young kids — they just think it is too dangerous to place it in such close proximity to a public school.
“I’m not against homeless people, I’m against the location where they’re putting it in,” said neighborhood resident Eva Shakiri, one of a few dozen locals who showed up to protest.
Some residents felt the Department of Homeless Services blindsided them when it announced in late November that the 65-unit shelter was coming and just weeks away. But the protest’s organizer said he and some other residents didn’t find about out about it at all until this weekend, and the number of people who nevertheless showed up to demonstrate a day later shows how strongly they object.
“We only had one day, and a lot of people came,” he said.
The protesters hefted signs bemoaning the location of the shelter, between Albemarle Road and Church Avenue, across from PS 230 and the more than 1,300 students it serves.
“Out of your mind! Homeless shelter stone throw distances from elementary schools in a conservative neighborhood,” read one placard.
Fliers distributed to promote the rally suggested that the residents expected to move into the shelter would include drug-users, sexual predators, and other criminals.
“Needless to say a homeless center carries the risk of drugs, sexual predatory activities and other crimes that endanger the lives of innocent people,” the notice read.
At a meeting announcing the shelter last month, homeless services officials stressed that the facility will exclusively cater to families with young children, and claimed it will put plenty of security measures in place, including guards, cameras, metal detectors, and a curfew.
The shelter is supposed to open this week, but the protesters remain hopeful the city will rethink the location and work with the community to find a new, more amicable site.
“My main thing is they didn’t ask us before so we could help them find a better location,” Shakiri said. “I’m not against homeless people — I’m all for the needy, I’ll give them the shirt off my back. But the location is no good.”
The city will host a public meeting on the shelter on Thursday at PS 230.
Community meeting at PS 230 (1 Albermarle Rd. between McDonald Avenue and Dahill Road in Kensington), Dec. 10 at 6:30 pm.
