Rep. Malliotakis and Assemblymember Tannousis call on mayoral candidates to change city’s process siting new homeless shelters

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The city chose locations for homeless shelters on Staten Island with little to no input from the local community and officials. Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis and Assemblymember Michael Tannousis hope the next mayor will not “do business” like Mayor Bill de Blasio and his administration have.

Malliotakis and Tannousis gathered in front of 1055 Hylan Blvd in Grasmere, the location of a proposed homeless shelter, on Wednesday to reiterate their concerns about homeless shelters being placed in residential communities without input from local residents and officials as well as call on mayoral candidates to plan to operate differently than Mayor de Blasio on the matter.

“We are calling on the three candidates running for mayor of this city – Eric Adams, Curtis Sliwa, and Bill Pepitone. We are calling on them to commit to changing the process by which the city of New York conducts business in regards to homeless shelters,” said Tannousis. “We are asking that they take community input and elected official input into account when they make these decisions.”

When the city’s plans to open homeless shelters in Grasmere and Stapleton by the end of 2021 were revealed in March, elected officials and Staten Island residents felt blindsided. Neither officials nor residents and community organizers were given the opportunity to voice their concerns prior to the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) choosing the locations, according to Tannousis and Malliotakis.

Tannousis described the Grasmere location as dangerous and inadequate, noting that the site is located on the corner of Hylan Blvd and Steuben St at a very busy intersection where he said there have been 45 motor vehicle accidents since 2018. He also questioned whether the building would be large enough to accommodate the 50 senior women and 30 employees that DHS says will occupy the shelter in addition to having a small parking lot.

The Assemblyman also pointed out that DHS personnel didn’t seem to be familiar with the location initially. After elected officials and residents began voicing their opposition to the shelters, DHS personnel met with Community Board 2.

“And after two meetings with the Community Board, it became apparent that none of the personnel that came to testify before the Community Board had even visited this location. So all the concerns that we had brought up, prior to that, they had not come to this location to see it for themselves,” said Tannousis.

Malliotakis emphasized that Mayor de Blasio’s “Turning the Tide” initiative, which includes a goal of 90 new homeless shelters across the five boroughs, doesn’t address homelessness long term.

“The homeless shelter is supposed to be a temporary solution and had we been working on rehabilitating individuals and transitioning them out of the system, they would be better off,” said Malliotakis. “The communities would be better off and we wouldn’t have this issue now where the mayor is looking for additional sites and converting hotels all across the city of New York into shelters, which by the way are costing the taxpayers a fortune.”

The congresswoman asserted that homelessness should be addressed with programs and policies that help transition people out of the system rather than temporarily accommodate including: “reinstating workforce training, relocating individuals to family members, making sure that they get the social services that they really do need, not this thrive NYC nonsense. Actual real support,” said Malliotakis

“Until you have a meeting with the community and address these concerns and take public input and meet with the elected officials and hear their point of view of what would be more appropriate solutions to address homelessness, then we urge every single candidate running for mayor to scrap this plan and start new,” she added.