NIMBY: "Just Home? Fine Enough. Just Near Our Homes!"

I took a walk this morning, past the sewer grate that was never fixed (I flagged it to a local official over a year ago; a staff member thanked me and said that they would notify the appropriate city official).  I also saw another sign for a garage sale (using some poster-making website) scheduled in October.  And, on the way back, more strong words against a planning issue. 

Just Home is NOT proposing a jail or a shelter. Its proposal is to develop the unused “Building 2” on Jacobi Hospital’s campus for permanent supportive housing consisting of about 70 studios, each with a bathroom and kitchen. The eligible clients will be homeless and formerly incarcerated or pre-trial detainees from Rikers Island with complex medical needs, like stage-4 cancer, end-stage renal disease and congestive heart failure. A few studios will be set aside for affordable housing with first preference to CB11 residents.

(That is Community Board 11.)  This is a summary from a supporter.  And, there is the official NYC Housing press release:

The project, Just Home, will provide permanent, supportive housing with social services for residents with complex medical needs, as well as affordable housing.

Then, there is the flyer NIMBY sentiment that warns (bold text):

Don't Turn Jacobi Into Rikers Island 

I saw such flyers last year too.  I saw them in the local library (not that close on foot).  I saw them on the wall at the supermarket. When doing poll duty, a voter wanted to hand me a flyer.  Such effort is not really too familiar in this area, perhaps suggesting there is some novelty to the proposal.  

Warning about how isolated it is from transportation (it's near major buses) and not near supermarkets and so forth (not really true).  It would be right near a hospital and a short car ride from a police station.  I thought I wrote about it but cannot find the post. This NIMBY is my general area turns not to be too novel:

Several of the project’s opponents were also against Destination Tomorrow, a supportive housing program at 2134 Barnes Ave. on Pelham Parkway to support victims of sexual violence and sex trafficking in the LGBTQ community. At the time, these same opponents stated the children in the school across the street would be targeted and there would be open prostitution. In fact, this supportive housing keeps their clients safe from sex trafficking and has provided space for community meetings. Fortune Society has provided programs and space for its surrounding community in Harlem and would do so as well for the community around Jacobi Hospital.

The last public hearing was so unhinged that an ethics complaint seems appropriate. I emailed multiple people (including the borough president) for information at the time but received no reply.  The assemblywoman at the time wanted it to be placed in a complex in an industrial area (across the street from a train yard), now with a psychiatric center.  My current city council person wants a baby or senior (nice safe cutesy things) center instead.  The uncomfortable people should go elsewhere.  

This sort of thing is understandable on some level.  But, it also suggests a certain lack of human empathy.  The location to me (even if it borders on the lower end of the local neighborhood)  is a sound one. The case against it is overheated.  The shouting even as local officials counsel them to listen (while assuring them they were against it) is telling.  

There is a certain "tenor of the times" feel here as shown by the governor supporting weakening bail reform in part because the crime was a major scare tactic (I mean issue) in the last election.  Ironically, someone was on Jen Paski today alleging the American people are concerned about the homeless. Maybe.  They want them away from them, apparently. 

I flagged the story of the day involving a mentally ill person killed on a subway.  There is public support for him, at least to the extent that people think killing him was wrong.  He fell between the cracks (again, no system will be perfect there anyways).  This program tries to address the needs of those in need, not just shunting them "over there."