78-16 Cooper Avenue will be the site of a 200-bed homeless shelter for single men. (Photo: Council Member Robert Holden)
Feb. 14, 2020 By Allie Griffin
The 200-bed single men homeless shelter opened in Glendale today, after years of protests, heated meetings and legal action from community members.
The “Cooper Rapid Rehousing Center,” at 78-16 Cooper Ave., officially opened today, the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) announced.
“Today, we proudly open our doors at the Cooper Rapid Rehousing Center, the first and only transitional housing facility in the Maspeth community, which is now providing high-quality shelter and dedicated employment services to single adult men experiencing homelessness as they work hard to restabilize their lives,” a DHS spokesperson said.
Its opening comes a week after a Manhattan supreme court judge tossed out a lawsuit filed last year by a number of civic groups that alleged that the City didn’t conduct a thorough study of the Cooper Avenue site before determining that it was a suitable location for the shelter.
The shelter was converted from a former warehouse on Cooper Avenue.
The shelter will serve 200 single men experiencing homelessness who are currently employed or actively seeking employment. It will accommodate many of the men who were sheltered at the now-shuttered Holiday Inn Express in Maspeth, DHS previously said.
Residents will be gradually moved into the shelter in the coming weeks.
The Cooper Rapid Rehousing Center will be run by Westhab, a Westchester-based nonprofit that will help residents to find and retain employment through on-site services and employment case managers. The end-goal is to help residents build income and achieve independence in order to transition to permanent housing.
It will have 24/7 security, as well as curfews for residents.
“We look forward to welcoming and supporting more neighbors in need at this location over the next few weeks,” the DHS spokesperson said. “Working together with service provider Westhab and the community, through collaborative support and compassion, we’re confident that we will make this the best experience it can be for these individuals as they get back on their feet.”
The shelter is part of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s “Turning Tide” plan to end the use of hotel facilities for sheltering the homeless.
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12 Comments
I just wanna thank Bob Holden , Masi and the JPCA for lying to the people of Glendale and Old Middle Village.
All lies!! There is nobody awake at the shelters overnight that work there!! I had a client many years ago that worked in a shelter on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn who says just about everyone that worked there were getting high. The people that had no choice staying there were scared most of the time. This men’s shelter will unfortunately wind up like the Skyline on the Conduit and many others. Drugs, alcohol, many clients that are mentally ill and will not get any help at the shelter. Want to make it real? Open a program that the city already pays for (Thrive) and have the professional staff there to really work with the individuals living there. Employment referrals for training if they are ready and sober. Many programs look to help the people there who’ve had any number of problems to change that person. I can’t imagine most residents are thrilled living in a shelter but thank G D they’re indoors when it’s cold like it is.
By the way, are the shelters privately run and maintained and the city pays them to do so? If that’s the case who are they and what are their backgrounds in this? Will the people who run it pay for those services mentioned above? WHO MONITORS THEM??
Yes there should be concern in the neighborhood and rightfully so.
By the way I know it’s hard to hear right now but nobody ever says there so happy to be alcoholics/addicts. It’s a horrible illness. Mentally ill getting help at the shelter? Will they have access to psychiatric services? Medication?
If you don’t show people there’s a BETTER way to live and you can do it.
This way they hopefully will move on and won’t need to come back.
Do it the right way this time. Neighbors are on edge rightfully so. How many people are happy at the way their home prices have changed.
You have people’s lives in your hands. This is not a game.
Let Mayor Bill put the shelter where he lives.
I grieve for MV and Glendale. I’d hate to see two good neighborhoods reduced to trash.
This just goes to show you that now in NYC the citizens hold no power in their neighborhoods. You can protest all you want, sue, doesn’t matter….bike lanes, jails, bus rerouting…. City does whatever they want. Yes, I know homeless need help but tell that to the house values. It’s a reality prices will go down. Biggest investment people have.
So much for protests, lawsuits, meetings, raising your voices, and still it was rammed down your throats, the entire community of Glendale was shafted. Under the cover of darkness they will be shuttled in, ex-cons on parole from NYS prisons, the mentally ill and the drug addicted. Not all are bad, there are some down on their luck, but most are angry, aggressive and will resent what your have worked to attain through the sweat of brow, your well kept homes,tree-lined streets and the community you have created. Watch your neighborhood quickly have a spike in crime and be changed forever. The organization(s) running these shelters are all owned by big donors and friends of Mayor Di Blasio from his old stomping grounds in Brooklyn who have supported him and his corrupt administration. Our hard earned tax dollars funneled and washed through a maze of not-for profits enriching the friends of the mayor. Don’t let the Westchester based Non-Profit mislead you. In the words of Charleston Heston, who played the part of Moses in the ten commandments,…..Let my people go, may the exodus from Glendale begin.
This is a disaster. They will be disturbing local business. Bathing and hanging out at the diner and McDonald’s.
24 hours security in the place how about outside these people will room the neighborhood when not in the shelter one of the last few good neighborhoods in queens and they had to go fit up we should all stop paying our taxes since we have no say what happens in our neighborhoods where we live
This is ? i have to watch my daughter’s my house of the value is going to go down. This should never build here its garbage
Tell the mayor to move in and see what your doing to what now used to be a decent neighborhood…glad I moved this is a very sad day for middle village and Glendale.
Close the shelter it’s right by a school as well as dance studio for children and a gymnastics center for children
Are these men homeless or just released from prison?