HARLEM — A developer accused of promising condos while planning a homeless shelter in Harlem skipped a meeting packed full of protesters.
Instead, the man who could potentially run the shelter faced a standing room only crowd at Manhattan Community Board 10's committee meeting Monday.
Tony Hannigan, who runs The Center for Urban Community Service and has inquired about taking over the former James L. Varick Community Center, dealt with concerns that the neighborhood was saturated with supportive services.
“We live in the community and we understand that our community has been under siege by these services,” said Hazel Dukes, the chair of the community board 10’s health and human services committee.
The center, located at 151 W. 136th St., was formerly owned by Harlem’s historic Mother AME Zion Church and bought by Developer David Levitan, who runs 339 Development LLC, last year.
Residents said he promised to build condominiums and they only recently learned about a proposal for a homeless center, DNAinfo previously reported.
Dukes said the community board has no record of being contacted by the developer and raised questions regarding him bypassing protocol, which includes public notice and a meeting with the community board.
The board passed a resolution in 2008 and 2013 requiring a moratorium when there are new or expanding supportive services in the area.
Levitan, who did not respond to a request for comment, did not show up at Monday’s meeting.
Hannigan stressed to community members that his organization, which provides supportive housing and other services to homeless and low-income people, is not new.
CUCS operates the West Harlem Transitional Services, also called The Kelly, on West 127th Street and is relocating the program to increase its size from 40 beds to 66. The average stay for its clients is seven months, he said.
“There is misinformation going around about what we’re trying to do,” said Hannigan.
“We’re re-locating a program that’s been in operation for 20 years… it’s not a shelter. It’s not our style to jam stuff in there.”
Hannigan said The Kelly's home has become too small and “needs an extensive amount of work” and he has inquired about relocating the program to the site of the center.
Hannigan said his company does not have a contract with the developer, but it does have one with the city and has inquired about the space.
“If we stop taking people off the streets, there’ll be more people on the streets,” he said.
Residents stressed that more beds is cause for concern.
“The issue is the saturation and the density,” Candi Halbert, one of the members of the West 136th Street Block Association, told Hannigan at the meeting.
“Not only do we get the benefit but we get the burden.”
Hannigan said his company has to move quickly because they will no longer operate out of the The Kelly.
“We have to find a site because we don’t want to shut down the program for two years,” Hannigan told the residents.
Halbert said after the meeting that Hannigan did not adequately address their concerns.
“Our issue is we have had enough,” she said.
There has not been a proposal from the city’s Department of Human Services to use the center as a shelter and there must be a request for proposals process, said Brian Benjamin, the incoming chair of community board 10.
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Benjamin, whose tenure begins July 1, said the board will hold a special community meeting sometime in July to bring together residents, the DHS, Hannigan and the developer to discuss the issue and investigate if Harlem is saturated with too many services.
“We have to take a step back and look at this,” he said. “Just because they want to place it there doesn’t mean it’s good.”
