ATTENTION: CM James, Elected Officials, and Community Groups, Press Conference To Oppose DHS Plan to Move Homeless Intake Center, 3/8, 2PM, City Hall

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 5, 2009

Council Member Letitia James; Council Member Al Vann; Council Member Bill de Blasio; State Senator Eric Adams; State Senator Velmanette Montgomery; Assemblymember Hakeem Jeffries; Assemblymember Karim Camara; along with community groups including the Crown Heights Revitalization Movement; the Crown Heights North Association; and the Crow Hill Community Association; as well as neighborhood residents and advocates for the homeless will gather for a press conference on the Steps of City Hall, to oppose the Department of Homeless Services’ (DHS) plan to move the men’s homeless intake
center from Manhattan to the Bedford-Atlantic Armory Homeless Shelter in Brooklyn

Elected officials at press conference will announce that a law firm has been retained to stop the men’s homeless central intake center move - this Sunday, March 8th at 2 pm, on Steps of City Hall.

This press event is in support of homeless individuals, and the community. Please join us to fight this misguided plan that will not benefit the City’s male homeless population (nearly 60% reside in Manhattan), and will harm an overburdened community. Manhattan has the highest concentration of street homelessness of all five boroughs, and since the late 1970s, the City of New York has always maintained an intake center for homeless men in Manhattan.

By moving the central intake center to Crown Heights, Brooklyn -- an area with limited public transportation options -- DHS is essentially moving the front door to the shelter system farther away from those who need it most. This plan will significantly decrease access to shelter for homeless men throughout the City. Also, the Bloomberg Administration has not kept its pledge to create intake sites for homeless men in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx.

Who: Elected Officials, Advocates for the Homeless and the Crown Heights Community

What: Press conference to announce the law firm that has been retained to halt the Department of Homeless Services’ plan to close the Manhattan central intake center for homeless men and transfer its functions to the Bedford-Atlantic Armory in Crown Heights, Brooklyn

When: Sunday, March 8th at 2:00 pm on the Steps of City Hall

Contact: Amyre Loomis at (718) 260-9191, (646) 201-8183

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