Throngs of demonstrators marched through the normally sleepy streets of Sheepshead Bay to protest plans for a family homeless shelter — as locals claimed the city pulled a bait and switch to get the project OK’d.
A long caravan of cars snaked through about 20 blocks of the Brooklyn neighborhood Sunday while crowds carried signs reading “Affordable housing not shelters” and “Keep our kids safe! No shelters near playgrounds or schools!”
At the center of the issue is plans for a 169-family homeless shelter at 2134 Coyle St., a site initially approved as an affordable housing property in 2022. But after a developer backed out, city officials greenlighted plans for the shelter in 2023 without resident input.
The marchers started their walk at the shelter site and were joined by community activist and mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa and other candidates for local office.
“As you can see the community is outraged. The mayor refuses to come and talk to the community. None of the other mayoral candidates will come here and take a stand,” Sliwa said.
“So I’m leading a demonstration against this shuffle. We want affordable housing. That’s what this community was told and they agreed to it, and then the last minute switch, they want affordable housing, no shelters,” he added.
Local storekeepers and residents lined the streets as the caravan filed past, as thoroughfares became blocked and jammed up by the crowds.
Many marchers characterized the city’s system as broken and a possible threat to the local peace.
“This is a great community. There is like older people who settle here. It’s a beautiful community. There’s parks and everything,” said 21-year-old Sheepshead Bay resident Fruma Feldman.
“I do believe homeless people should have a place to go, but I was talking to my dad earlier and he told me that he has homeless friends that are scared to be in these shelters because of how dangerous the other people that are there are, it’s not even safe for a lot of homeless people to be there. So, with that being said, I don’t think it should be here.
“When the illegal migrants moved in at Floyd Bennett Field, my dad’s car got robbed, and the stores nearby were like closing everything,” Fruma added, referring to numerous reports of increased crime and panhandling after a sprawling tent-city was opened to house migrants nearby in 2024. “There was armed robberies, and we don’t need any more of that in this neighborhood. It was just scary for the community.”
Dimple Willabus, who is running for the local District 46 council, called on local officials to listen to residents — cautioning that construction could begin on the shelter any day.
“This is really to pressure the elected official, and to be very specific, the city councilmember so that she acts,” the 46-year-old said, referring to Council member Mercedes Narcisse. “No, don’t come out and speak to the people, don’t do PR stunts. Clean this up. This is a can of spilled milk and it is just drying up the sidewalk, and she’s trying to scoop it up.”
Sunday’s march was just the latest in a long-running protest against the shelter plans.
Dozens of residents had spent more than a month camped out in tents outside of the shelter site around the clock. Narcisse visited the encampment earlier in April and voiced support for the cause, according to the Canarsie Courier.
