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Crown Heights Homeless Shelter Opponents Return to Court Wednesday

By Rachel Holliday Smith | April 14, 2017 2:43pm | Updated on April 16, 2017 8:04pm
 This building on Bergen Street between New York and Brooklyn avenues in Crown Heights will become a shelter for 106 homeless men next month, the city said.
This building on Bergen Street between New York and Brooklyn avenues in Crown Heights will become a shelter for 106 homeless men next month, the city said.
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DNAinfo/Rachel Holliday Smith

CROWN HEIGHTS — A Brooklyn judge Wednesday will hear arguments about whether or not another homeless shelter should open in Crown Heights, residents fighting the facility said.

A hearing is set for Wednesday in Brooklyn Supreme Court to discuss the merits of a lawsuit brought by neighbors of 1173 Bergen St., where the city wants to open a shelter for 104 men over the age of 62.

Judge Katherine Levine will hear from the city, as well as attorneys for two block associations and more than 30 individual residents who are suing to stop the shelter, one of the 90 new facilities proposed as part of Mayor de Blasio’s plan to overhaul the Department of Homeless Services.

Levine previously ruled to block the Bergen Street location from opening in order to hear further arguments about the case before the men moved into the building. At a March 28 hearing, city attorneys argued there was an urgent need for shelter beds across the city and opening 1173 Bergen St. should be considered under emergency conditions.

The Bergen Street facility is one of three shelters coming to the Crown Heights area under de Blasio's plan. Another, planned for 132 families on Rogers Avenue, has been met with loud resistance from locals who would prefer to instead see low-income housing at the location.

That pushback is in stark contrast to a shelter located in nearby Prospect Heights, where neighbors of a 90-bed shelter for mentally ill women has been welcomed by its block’s residents since it quietly opened without controversy on March 17.

The city's homeless shelter population is a record-high 62,000 people, according the most recent data compiled by Coalition for the Homeless. The mayor's DHS plan aims to reduce that number by 2,500 over the next five years and close all cluster and hotel shelter sites citywide.