Bay Ridge locals fear homelessness in the neighborhood is getting worse

Growing Numbers of Vagrants are Spotted on Streets and Near Subways

September 21, 2016 By James Harney Brooklyn Daily Eagle

The R train entrance at 86th Street and Fourth Avenue in Bay Ridge. Eagle file photo by Paula Katinas

Share this:

Homelessness — not a serious concern in Bay Ridge in past years — is starting to become one, say residents and local leaders.

Officials at Community Board 10, which covers the neighborhood, report that complaint calls to the city’s 311 hotline about people living on the street have risen sharply in the past two years, from 24 in 2014 to 36 last year to 133 already this year.

“There is a more visible presence of street bedding and encampments that we have not seen in a very long time,” said Board 10 District Manager Josephine Beckmann. “You tend to see them near the [R] train” station at 86th Street and Fourth Avenue.

In the past, homeless persons have also been spotted sleeping on benches in Steadman Square on Third Avenue and 67th Street and in Leif Ericson Park on 67th Street between Third and Fourth avenues.

Beckmann said many people who settle in Bay Ridge “feel safe here” and call 311 about the homeless because they “are concerned and they want help” for them.

However, one resident told The Brooklyn Paper that “It can be scary navigating all the homeless men” she encounters in the morning while walking along Fourth Avenue to the 86th Street station. “Maybe a shelter would be a better place for them to hang out.”

But a homeless man who’s been living on the street in the vicinity of 86th and Fourth told The Brooklyn Paper that “The shelters are awful; I’d rather sleep out here in the street.”

City Councilmember Vincent Gentile (D-Bay Ridge-Dyker Heights-Bensonhurst) said Breaking Ground, the homeless outreach unit of the city’s Department of Homeless Services, “canvasses Leif Erickson Park daily and will be working with the Parks Department in a coordinated effort to improve the situation at Leif Ericson Park.

“I urge constituents to call my office regarding the homeless in our community, so we can contact Breaking Ground to assist these vulnerable individuals,” Gentile said.