Mayor de Blasio got it wrong when he chided a caller on his weekly radio show for complaining that a new shelter in Crown Heights would largely serve homeless from outside the community, according to court papers.
Papers submitted by the city in response to a lawsuit seeking to block the Bergen Street shelter show that caller Fior Ortiz-Joyner – who’s involved in the lawsuit – had her facts straight, while the mayor didn’t.
A lawyer for the Department of Social Services submitted court papers showing that only one-third of the shelter residents will be from Community Board 8 in Crown Heights and nearby Community Board 3 in Bedford Stuyvesant.
The other two-thirds will come almost entirely from elsewhere in Brooklyn, the court filings show.
When Ortiz-Joyner questioned that data on WNYC radio Friday — in making the case that Crown Heights is overburdened with shelters while de Blasio’s Park Slope neighborhood is not — Hizzoner responded that she “doesn’t know her facts.”
“Opponents love all over the city to throw down this card: ‘Oh, they’re really not from the community,'” the mayor said at the time. “Yes, they are from the community.”
Asked about the discrepancy at an unrelated event on Monday, de Blasio insisted he’s said all along that the first of the 90 shelters planned over the next 5 years would also serve the homeless from surrounding communities — not just the local area.
“We’ve said initially we’re going to do surrounding areas too ’cause it takes a while to re-balance the whole system,” he said.
Asked directly about his critique of Ortiz-Joyner’s grasp of the facts, he said, “My point to the caller was she was, respectfully, she was ignoring this plan and this vision,” de Blasio said.
“And her argument not only ignored the vision, but ignored the need to serve people in need in a way that’s being done very carefully.”
Reached by email on Monday, Ortiz-Joyner said the mayor’s response shows that he can’t be trusted.
She pointed to Department of Homeless Services data showing that Crown Heights already shelters more homeless people than originate from the neighborhood, while Park Slope shelters fewer than its fair share.
“When the mayor said on Friday that I didn’t know my facts, I beg to differ. By DHS’ calculations, the 104-bed shelter on Bergen Street should be placed elsewhere, perhaps Park Slope,” she said.
“To make the residents of Crown Heights seem heartless is a deflection from the real issue. We are obviously taking care of our own and then some.”