Canarsie rallies against planned 200-bed men's shelter a block from a middle school

Dozens of parents, teachers and elected officials rallied in Canarsie on Monday evening, Nov. 9, against a city plan to open a 200-bed shelter for single men on East 108th Street, one block from Science and Medicine Middle School 366, News 12 Brooklyn reported. PIX11 also covered the protest.

"You want to put it next to a school, a middle school for God's sake!" Council Member Mercedes Narcisse, who represents the district, told the crowd, according to News 12.

What we know about the site

• Where: East 108th Street in Canarsie. Narcisse's announcement of the rally gave the address as 945 E. 108th St., the Epoch Times reported.
• Who runs it: Midway Living, officials said.
• When: expected to open in 2028.
• How residents found out: Narcisse said the Department of Social Services told her about it only last week. "When we spoke last year, there was no shelter plan," she said.

What the city says

A DSS spokesperson pointed News 12 to the agency's Nov. 4 announcement. In it, the Department of Homeless Services said it would open 12 new shelters between 2027 and 2030: four in Manhattan, three in Brooklyn, three in Queens, one in the Bronx and one on Staten Island. The city says the added capacity will help it stop housing families with children in commercial hotels and other substandard sites, ease crowding at places like the 30th Street men's shelter and the Bruckner Boulevard migrant shelter, and put a shelter in every Council district so that a few neighborhoods don't carry most of them.

The spokesperson also told News 12 that the city needs more capacity to "meet rising demand from single adults." DHS has said the Department of Social Services will hold a community meeting for each site before it opens. The Nov. 4 release does not list addresses, and it's not clear from the city's statements whether the Canarsie site is one of the 12; the Epoch Times noted the release focused on family shelters.

What's next

Narcisse said she has asked to meet the DSS commissioner on Thursday, Nov. 12; the crowd chanted, "We want the mayor!" Residents who want a say can watch for the DSS community meeting notice.

The fight is the latest over shelter siting as the city's system grows. Earlier this month Queens officials disclosed a planned 165-bed men's shelter in Maspeth.