Assemblyman William Colton and City Councilmember Susan Zhuang held a protest on Saturday, March 16, against the proposed homeless shelter at 2501 86th Street.
“This is the largest gathering I think the neighborhood has seen in many, many years,” said Assemblyman Colton, “We are here to say in one clear voice to all our government officials – No more homeless shelters! Homeless shelters are not the solution. The solution is permanent affordable housing. The solution is services. Homeless shelters are an obstacle to that. They use millions and billions of dollars that could be used for the real solution.”
The developer of the site, 2501 86th Street, is Tejpal Sandhu of 86th Street NY LLC, who was the developer behind the shelter originally planned for 2147 Bath Avenue. According to Assemblyman Colton, the Sandhu Group makes a practice of building hotels in unexpected locations then leasing them to the city as housing at the cost of thousands of dollars per resident per month.
On 86th Street, Sandhu has filed papers with the city’s Department of Buildings to construct a 32-room hotel with a community facility attached. The city notified the prior council member for the area that it plans to use the site as a men's shelter.
Last month, Colton and Zhuang launched a task force focused on stopping the homeless shelter from opening at the location.
