Too Many Homeless Shelters in Bed-Stuy?

Are neighborhoods like Bed-Stuy oversaturated with homeless shelters?

Henry Butler, chairman of Community Board 3 thinks so, and believes that “more affluent parts of the city are spared the burden,” of homeless shelters and transitional housing, according to the Brooklyn Ink.

“We don’t want to become a community of transitional housing,” Butler told the Ink. “Every program does not have to be in Bedford-Stuyvesant or Crown Heights.”

The report cites statistics from the Department of Homeless Services, which say that between 2009 and 2010, there was a 17 percent increase in the number of families with children seeking shelter.

Nearly 30 percent of the DHS’s transitional houses are located in Brooklyn, and the majority of “three-quarter houses” (former one- and two-family residences that house up to 40 homeless adults) are located in low-income neighborhoods like Bed-Stuy, says the article, culling data from a 2008 report by Coalition for the Homeless.

In January, the DHS wanted to double the capacity of the Sumner Avenue Armory, from housing 200 homeless adults to 400. and urged the community to do the same.

“Our community is not opposed to taking care of our homeless residents, but we object to the warehouse-type shelter that DHS seems to be promoting as not in the best interest of the shelter residents, the community nor our city,” Council Member Al Vann .

But still, unemployment, poverty and homelessness are rampant issues in Bed-Stuy. Unemployment in Bed-Stuy , especially for African Americans who make up the majority of residents in the neighborhood.

While unemployment among the general population within Brooklyn is 10.2 percent, it's at 16.1 percent for African Americans, and still a bit higher for African Americans in Central Brooklyn at 18.3 percent, according to a report released in June by the Fiscal Policy Institute.