BRONX, NY – In response to a NYC Department of Homeless Services decision to relocate nearly 150 single adult male residents to 4747 Bronx Boulevard, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, Congressman Eliot Engel, State Senator Jamaal Bailey, Council Member Andrew Cohen, and Bronx Community Board 12 issued the following statement:

“We are outraged that the placement of homeless residents is being undertaken with such a callous disregard for the people involved. Our Wakefield community already carries a disproportionate share of our civic responsibility to take care of vulnerable populations, with several other DHS facilities in the immediate vicinity of 4747 Bronx Boulevard including a men’s shelter housing over a hundred residents at 4380 Bronx Boulevard and another planned facility at White Plains Road, all located within a one-mile radius. Worse even than breaking their promise that they would not put another DHS facility at 4747 Bronx Boulevard is the fact that the city appears to be pushing this forward without so much as a courtesy notification to the people in this community. A rushed decision that disregards how people should be treated is not going to yield positive results for anyone involved – the community, the homeless residents, or our overall goal of placing people in long-term affordable housing.”