By Dan Murphy
Regardless of what part of Westchester County you live in, the opposition to not having a homeless shelter or even a Family Court facility can be heard in the acronym NIMBY—Not in My Backyard.
In the northern Westchester City of Peekskill, residents came out to oppose the proposed relocation of the only 24-hour, 365-day homeless adult shelter in the northern part of the county.
The Jan Peek House homeless shelter is currently located at 200 North Water St., Peekskill, and is operated by Caring for the Hungry and Homeless of Peekskill (CHHOP). CHHOP has purchased another building in Peekskill, located at 851 Washington St., which it wants to relocate its shelter to so that it can better provide services to the homeless.
“The new facility is vastly superior – we’ll have a full-size cooking kitchen, which means we will be able to cook better meals for our residents as well as teach residents how to cook and other types of skills that help them to move forward with their lives,” said Cynthia Knox, executive director of CHHOP.
But neighbors and residents of Washington Street packed a recent Peekskill Council meeting to express their concerns and opposition to the plan, citing their property values and safety of young children.
The shelter has operated on North Water Street for 30 years.
In order to relocate the shelter, CHHOP would have to make extensive repairs to gain a certificate of occupancy and must also obtain a special use permit and approval from the Peekskill planning and zoning board.
Peekskill resident Lindsey Fitzgerald has led the effort against the shelter’s move, circulating a petition with more than 1,000 signatures. “We can all find a solution,” she said. “The Jan Peek Shelter has been here for 30 years. There’s a place for it in the community. We can certainly find the right location for it if we work together.”
The Washington Street location is near a bus stop and would accommodate many homeless veterans. The new shelter would have 35 beds.
Ingrid Whitman, a member of the Jan Peek House Coalition, supports the move. “By the grace of God any one of us could become homeless,” she said. “We should think what’s best for the residents (of the shelter) and think about their humanity and dignity.”
Peekskill Mayor Andre Rainey and the City Council have not yet voted on the proposal because of the many pending approvals and renovations required for the building.
The new facility would be able to accommodate the homeless adult population during the day, instead of requiring them to leave at 6 a.m. – a problem and rule that affects a homeless shelter on the other end of Westchester County in Yonkers.
In downtown Yonkers, in the Getty Square part of the city and only a few blocks away from the downtown waterfront that has close to a billion dollars of new or planned redevelopment underway, sits the Sharing Community’s drop-in homeless adults shelter, located next to St. John’s Episcopal Church. The exiting shelter no longer adequately services the needs of the homeless population, and homeless advocates and residents downtown have called for the shelter to move.
Yonkers City Councilwoman Shanae Williams, who represents the First District that includes the shelter, also supports a move to provide the homeless population with more services. A similar problem is finding a suitable place to move the shelter to without sparking a public outcry.
The homeless population in Westchester is the responsibility of county government. County Executive George Latimer recently commented on the future of the drop-in shelter in Yonkers.
“For many years, those who are classified as homeless cluster in our urban core areas,” he said in November. “Society, working through government, provides some minimum baseline of shelter particularly on cold nights. Part of this is a legal requirement, part of this is a moral requirement. Downtown Yonkers is one of those areas, and for a number of years the nonprofit Sharing Community has provided some of those basic services, contracting for space with St. John’s Church. The county Department of Social Services has contracted with outside agencies to provide services for the homeless.
“In Yonkers, our current contract with St. John’s Church expires Dec. 31; the church that houses this has other plans for their space. Working with the city, the county has not yet found acceptable alternate space to house the homeless. Additionally, advocates have requested additional space for day programs for the homeless to keep then gainfully engaged and off the streets, or away from congregating in other public buildings with other functions (libraries, transit stations).
“Since we are still without alternate space, we are discussing an extension of the current arrangements for six additional months, through June 30,” continued Latimer. “The heart of the winter is ahead and without alternate space, we have few options. There are voices in the community that do not care whether we help the homeless at all, seeing it as not their problem; they believe these individuals must do more for themselves. There are other voices in the community that insist we do more for the needy. The emotion of this issue exceeds any rational discussion. The answer is in siting an appropriate facility in a workable setting, and we will continue trying to find the balance to better address the matter.”
The county, the church and Sharing Community have since agreed to a six-month extension to find and announce a new drop-in location for a homeless shelter in Westchester’s largest city.
Finally, the efforts by Latimer and Westchester county government to find another location in New Rochelle for the Westchester Family Court continue. In a memo to the state’s Office of Court Administration, which will make the final decision, and dated last October, after reviewing numerous properties in New Rochelle including suggestions from residents, the most viable property remains at 366 Pelham Road, the site of a former A&P Supermarket. This property is available for construction immediately, will be completed in the fastest amount of time (October) and will be completed for the least amount of tax dollars ($43.5 million estimated over 30 years).
