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Read the press release here.

Greenpoint Neighbors Form Corporation to Fight Proposed Homeless Shelter

The shelter would accommodate homeless people both in Greenpoint and from all over the city.
The shelter would accommodate homeless people both in Greenpoint and from all over the city.
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DNAinfo/Meredith Hoffman

GREENPOINT — A group of residents and business owners have formed a corporation in their latest attempt to battle a homeless shelter slated to enter the neighborhood.

The group, which opposes a proposed residence at 400 McGuinness Blvd, filed with the state in May as the Greenpoint Neighborhood Coalition, Inc. They have hired an attorney, Andrew Stern, to block the residence.

"We have formed a corporation...in order to organize and fight against the 200-bed men's homeless shelter, which threatens to ruin our current lifestyle and the safety and quality of the neighborhood," the coalition wrote in a donation request letter.

Locals have been fighting the shelter proposal since 2010, as the Brooklyn Paper reported at the time. But a member of the coalition said this was the first time they were taking such concrete legal steps. The corporation is raising money that will be entirely used to pay the attorney, the group's letter stated.

"It enables us to form as a group. It gives us more legitimacy as a corporation's name rather than the name of one individual," said a member of the group who refused to be named. "We're stringing together."

The city's Department of Homeless Services did not respond immediately to requests for comment about plans for the shelter or its opposition.