Overview
- Hundreds of residents crowded the 86th Street and 25th Avenue site Sunday night after rumors of a Monday ground-breaking, with NYPD officers deploying barricades and making at least one arrest.
- The Department of Social Services says the Mamdani administration plans to restart the project, but construction has not begun and the target opening remains late 2027.
- The facility is slated to house 150 men, including people with mental-health needs, and city agencies note Bensonhurst currently has no shelters.
- Opponents, including some local lawmakers, argue the site sits too close to transit, schools, and senior housing, and they fear safety problems even as trucks appeared to approach the lot.
- The plan dates to a November 2023 community notice under the Adams administration, and protests have persisted since, including a July 2024 clash in which Councilwoman Susan Zhuang was arrested and later cleared.