SHEEPSHEAD BAY — ANGER OVER A PLAN TO CONVERT A FAMILY SHELTER into a facility for unvetted single men has prompted local leaders to schedule a protest for Thursday night at 6 p.m.
Elected officials who represent Sheepshead Bay are inviting the public from surrounding communities to join the protest against the planned transfer of 55 families with children from the shelter at 3218 Emmons Ave. and their replacement with 110 single and unvetted adult men.
City Councilmember Inna Vernikov (R-48th District), Assemblymember Kalman Yeger (D-41) and state Sen. Sam Sutton (D-22), who will lead the protest, warned in a letter to city Comptroller Mark Levine and city agencies that displacing the families currently residing at the site would be disruptive both to the parents who have secured steady employment and to the children enrolled in local schools.
They said that current city departments of Social Services and of Homeless Services lack a policy to screen the men who would occupy the shelter, making it unsuitable for a location across from children’s playground, and that the agencies’ policy does not reject individuals with criminal offenses.
The letter called it “inhumane and inconsiderate to transfer out these families who integrated into Sheepshead Bay.”
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