A new homeless shelter for families with children — and soon, their pets — has officially opened in Flushing, Queens.
The 90-unit facility will eventually allow residents to live with their furry companions, in hopes the latter will provide stability as their owners get back on their feet. The initiative is the latest in a push by the city to improve shelter conditions for homeless New Yorkers.
“This is a new way of thinking of how shelters should be, more inclusive, more holistic,” said Helen Arteaga, New York City’s deputy mayor for health and human services. “ ometimes children have their cats, their hamsters and they don’t want to leave them behind, especially when they’re feeling so insecure in life.”
City officials say they’re working to move out of old, dilapidated shelter buildings that are often run by private landlords and build nicer facilities that are owned by nonprofits and designed to better meet the needs of homeless people.
The shelter in Flushing, called Magnolia Gardens, is newly built, with a spacious recreation room for children, a laundry facility, recess lighting, and feng shui elements such as a water fountain in the lobby. Once the shelter, which will open to residents this week, gets final city approval, pets will be able to move in, too.
”Pets are part of the family. So imagine tearing a pet apart from their family and they can’t go into shelter with them. It’s heartbreaking,” said Nathaniel Fields, CEO of the nonprofit Urban Resource Institute, which co-owns and will manage the site.
He said building more welcoming spaces, with private rooms and pet-friendly accommodations, will help convince more street homeless New Yorkers or victims of domestic violence to seek shelter.
The $60 million development is among more than two dozen shelter sites owned and managed by nonprofits and financed by the city. City officials say that investment will ultimately save taxpayers money and help homeless New Yorkers find stability more quickly.
The new shelter comes on the heels of the Mamdani administration’s closure of the massive men’s homeless shelter known as Bellevue that is in dire need of repair.
Thomas Yu, executive director of Asian Americans for Equality, which will co-own the site and help make referrals to the shelter, said the property will be a crucial resource for the Asian community in Flushing, where homelessness still holds a stigma. He said many families in the area are living in illegal basements or other unsafe conditions.
“We have such a hidden homeless population within our own communities, like a stigma against talking about it,” he said.
City officials said members of the community will be given priority placements on the site but families will also be referred there from other parts of the city. The city also hopes to transition New Yorkers who are currently in a more expensive hotel shelter nearby to the new shelter.
“It’s just a much easier environment to start to rebuild, to get services and supports to feel part of the community and not feel like you’re separate,” Department of Social Services Commissioner Erin Dalton said.
“It’s not that these places cost more. Paint doesn’t cost more to be a nice color, a trauma-informed color, having some finishings is not what makes these buildings expensive, but it does show that we care about the people who are staying here,” she added.