An outspoken opponent of using Maspeth’s Holiday Inn Express as a shelter, freshman Assemblyman Brian Barnwell (D-Maspeth), has drafted and plans to introduce a mulifaceted bill that would empower community boards to veto planned shelter sites.
Given the experience with their communities that board members have, the lawmaker said, their votes would be based on more information than City Hall’s.
“At the end of the day when you leave all the decision-making power in the hands of the mayor, the fact of the matter is you leave the authority to the person who is in my opinion causing problems,” Barnwell said. “Notification is great but you need something to actually have the power to stop bad decisions.”
The assemblyman does not think that granting the shelter-placement rejection power would result in NIMBYism preventing hotels from ever being used as shelters, though it would block sites like the Holiday Inn Express from housing the homeless. Different sites could be suggested by the board, he said; and no government body is ever compelled to approve anything.
“What forces the Senate to approve a nomination for the Supreme Court?” he said. “The community board is not gonna turn down every site.”
Community boards are advisory bodies. Because Barnwell’s legislation would designate the hotel shelter location veto authority, the assemblyman said that a “home rule message” — legislative approval by New York City — might be required.
The Law Department declined to comment about whether the bill would require a home-rule message; City Hall and the office of Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito (D-Manhattan, Bronx) did not immediately return requests for comment.
39 comments:
He thinks there are community boards that would allow shelters in their communities if his legislation passes! Who is he kidding
As they like to repeatedly remind us: "Community Boards are only advisory agencies."
Does Barnwell really think the City will NOT fight tooth and nail to avoid being put in a situation where NIMBY vetoes (and lets be honest, every CB without significant indirect bribery WILL veto every time) will paint the City itself into a liability corner it can't escape from? Can one of you in Maspeth who knows someone who knows Barnwell please talk some sense into him, and focus his energy instead on a bill that would reinterpret the Callahan decision to put the onus on State agencies, not the individual municipalities, to provide shelter if people don't meet a certain set of residency criteria?
The Maspeth shelter and the fact that the incumbent was a total no show are the only reasons he achieved a seat at the City Council.
Marge Margret Markey was so bad (how bad was she?)
She was so bad that she did not even show up for ribbon cuttings!
The Community Boards are merely there to provide the false illusion that the local community has a voice and some power.
They are a farce and a giant waste, of time, peoples' efforts, resources and moneys!
We know that the council will NEVER cede any of their power to anyone, not ever!
This is how he will justify to his constituents that he is working tirelessly for them.
He is a young fellow, is this just naïveté, or just political showmanship?
How soon will it be apparent that even as a Democrat, he will be powerless, ostracized, and irrelevant?
If he keeps up his lone crusade against the shelters, he will be rendered useless and eaten by his own!
All alone, and drowning in the midst of a giant disgusting, foul, evil swamp...
Sarc as every reader of this site knows is 100 percent right
He's kidding right? He's coming up with these bills that are complete jokes. And everyone is rallying around him, it's pathetic. You realize these people really do not know politics especially local politics. He'll be a one term assemblyman.
I feel that the fact that the incumbent was just there to collect a paycheck is not the only reason Barnwell was elected to office. I personally feel that people of the various communities saw a young intelligent man with a great deal of energy and desire to help. He is approachable and will listen to anyone's concerns and do his best to recommend solutions to their problems or help find resources that may be available to help if he cannot do so directly. He is just getting started on what I hope will be a long political career. I assume he will make mistakes along the way as we all do but having spoke to him personally on many occasions and reading some of the bills he has co-sponsored I can tell his heart is in the right place..
This really shows that he is not from this area. This might work out in massapequa not in NYC buddy.
The mayor wants the homeless to be put in their communities on which they came from. Ok than every community should have a place for their neighbors/residents. But we know that's not going to happen. With a right to shelter law how do you justify a guy who gave his last address in Massachusetts to be placed in the Bronx? And the Bronx resident sent to Forest Hills?
The Forest Hills resident sent to Staten Island. It goes on and on.
The mayor really believes this will work? After all where are all the Maspeth homeless he said gave Maspeth their last address go when he placed all those men in the Holiday Inn??
A little transparency here. We all were not born yesterday!!!!
Why don't the people with the negative feedback post their names as well?
You do also realize this is for HOTEL shelters and not shelters all together? This will also force the proper accommodations to be built for homeless individuals and not warehouse individuals in hotels without any community input.
Apparently it is NIMBY to not want sex offenders down the block from schools or kids parks.
For the person saying markey only lost because markey no showed sounds like someone who is bitter. They don't even know what office markey lost. isn't a legislator's job to propose laws to change things? Apparently not
The people posting don't mention this bill only deals with HOTELS and not shelters.
Ribbon cuttings, Really who care about ribbon cuttings. He just saying this to please the voters but he knows this will this never happen.
Knucklehead
Brian Barnwell has been groomed by councilman Costa Constantinides from Astoria when he worked with him and he is very chummy with Jimmy Van Bramer so we should all be very cautious -
Are the shelters permanent or a temporary swinging door place as they place people in permanent housing?
Why not place them in permanent housing? You got all these luxury apartments rising up. Why not use them for permanent affordable housing.
So the kid proposes a law that will attempt to fix the problem and the keyboard warriors are upset because it won't pass? Is the kid not supposed to offer bills that directly address the issue? Should he not offer solutions to the problem? It seems the negative complaints are
from bitter people who just don't like the kid. Especially the guy who mentioned all his bills suck. Yeah shame on him for solving the problems. How many of these comments are from Dave and his comrades?
How dare the kid offer solutions to the problem!
Which bills of his suck? Will anonymous enlighten us? Why do they suck?
Sounds like a great idea. Notice the people crying about it never say the idea is bad, just that it won't pass. Maybe they should cry to the other politicians who aren't doing anything about the issue and not moan about one of the few who actually is.
There are plenty of vacancies in Bruce Ratner's buildings in downtown Brooklyn, that can be filled. As well has in a lot of Two Trees luxury towers that also spared a pittance of apts for affordability.
The mayor and the city council talks about towns taking up the fair share of homeless, well a lot of new towers went up in the past 3 years that can be occupied and bring down these depressing stats. And it might cost a lot less than putting them in expensive squalor and dilapidated buildings and useless hotels. Let the predators in REBNY put up their fair share.
And it's too soon to trash this official. For at least he has an idea, which is more than can be said for the established ones in city council and the speaker, who by their non-response, still don't have a clue and don't have the guts to challenge De Faustio and Weasel Banks.
The Barnwell sycophants are a special breed. Their level of hero worship for someone who came out of the woodwork for the first time to run for office is astounding. They really have deluded themselves into thinking that Woodside guy Barnwell would have been down at the Maspeth hotel protests whether or not he was running for office. It's really amazing. You can't question or criticize anything the guy does.. Worshipping a politician is really a bad move.
Don't need new shelters-- every station on the number 6 line in Manhattan is already a homeless shelter, and a homeless toilet. But Mayor Big Slo wouldn't know that since he, unlike Bloomberg, doesn't ride the train.
Yes, it's hilarious watching Barnwell zombies praising him on Facebook. He can do no wrong. Such blind loyalty is dangerous in politics. We'll see how long it takes him to sell out to the machine if he hasn't already.
I point out again notice how nobody is arguing the idea is a bad idea. By default they admit it would solve the problem . Either they hate barnwell or other people won't pass the law because they have no courage.
This in no way will solve the problem when there are thousands of people flooding into NYC from elsewhere. Before the election, this guy had claimed he would file his own lawsuit against the hotel and city to stop the shelter, that mysteriously has been dropped. He also said there were several ways to end right to shelter, now he's talking about community boards. I have no connection to any of the candidates, I was just present when he made these public announcements and I think he should be held accountable when he breaks a promise just like the rest of them.
Right from the horse's mouth: “As an attorney, I’ll be able to solve problems non-attorneys don’t know how to solve. I’ll be able to understand legislation and not need someone to explain it to me.” As an example, he cited the state’s right-to-shelter law, which he would like to challenge in court...
I guess you haven't done your research. He co sponsored a bill that legislates a one year residency requirement on benefits.
I haven't done my homework? He's been posting lists of bills he sponsored and he somehow failed to mention that one. Why is that? And what is the bill number?
Where is Schumer? Where is Kirsten? Where are all the others who we elected into office to do the work of the people.
Trump is not the only thing going on.
The homeless situation is getting way out of hand. Where are the solutions? How can this be prevented?
36/79
This bill has nothing to do with right to shelter.
You also can't read very well. NYC has right to shelter. Not the whole State of New York. You do realize the difference between city and state government right? NYC has to pass the law. You are barking up the wrong tree.
Um, Dani, dear, the WHOLE STATE OF NEW YORK is right to shelter, based on a STATE court decision regarding the STATE constitution. Do your homework because you're making yourself look like a fool.
Limiting welfare benefits to residents has no bearing on right to shelter. Unless you change right to shelter, you will still see people coming here in droves.
This is what caught my eye, thanks to the link horse's mouth
As an example, he cited the state’s right-to-shelter law, which he would like to challenge in court, and the federal government’s area median income formula that Barnwell calls a root cause of the affordable housing crisis and by extension, the homeless epidemic.
“Affordable housing should be affordable and AMI is a federal formula so to determine what’s affordable in Astoria or Woodside, it takes into account what’s affordable in Westchester and Long Island,” Barnwell said. “My plan is to draft legislation to make it a state formula based on zip code, make it local.”
That's the main problem, the AMI, it should correlate with the district and not expand to suburban areas in Westchester County. That way avaricious landlords and the market fabricators can't come up with asinine, excessive rent increases and values. It's why the South Bronx is in trouble right now and rents in places with high poverty like Bushwick and now East New York is seeing increases in rent.
It's not hard to be cynical, especially these days with the NY's worst assholes running the white house, in albany and in park row, and with Preet gone for the moment, but Barnwell may be on to something. And the right to shelter is being taken advantage of, not only by desperate and opportunistic transients, but the non-profit industry.
this has been said before for the wrong reasons, but give this guy a chance. He sure is better than that career hack Markey.
Writing in big letters does not make it true. Sorry you are wrong. Still anonymous though. Nice. No point arguing a troll.
The Times Ledger article shows Barnwell in a much better light. This post's original Queens Chronicle piece truncates his position, and just makes him look bad, and I think some or all of the critical posters might retract their statements if they would read it. Hey QueensCrapper, maybe link to that instead?
Dani, you are incorrect. In 1938, during the Depression, New York rewrote its state constitution, adding a provision that states, "the aid, care and support of the needy are public concerns and shall be provided by the state...." It is that provision that courts have used to declare that there is a right to shelter in the state of New York.
Argument over.
Not denying that but that doesn't mandate a right to shelter for non resident New Yorkers. The right to shelter only exists in New York City.
It's a state requirement that they be sheltered regardless of where they come from because many street homeless can't prove residency. So it applies equally to everyone, even people who just arrived off a plane or train.
How about families with2 incomes that make more than 80k stil living in publicly housing?? Make them pay market rent or get out!!!!!!
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