Russian-speaking immigrant fights homeless shelter near Brooklyn school

Brooklyn residents are stunned by New York officials' decision to open a shelter for male migrants on the same block as an elementary school, reports FoxNews.

"We wanted to know about safety precautions. We were given no information," Brooklyn mother of three Irina Edelstein says in a documentary by the Independent Women's Forum.

Brooklyn's Border Crisis follows the community where Edelstein lives as it struggles with issues since a shelter opened migrants. Shelter on The 400-bed facility in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn opened last April. It is about 300 feet from City Life Academy, the private Christian K-12 school where the Edelstein children attend.

City officials told residents at a public meeting in March that they had “talked to every school principal in the area” and they had given their approval for the shelter. City Life Academy Principal Jeffrey Reed, who is also a pastor and father, disputes that comment.

"I only learned about the shelter two months before this meeting. It had been in development for almost a year," he denies the officials' assurances.

On the subject: 75% of crimes in Manhattan and 60% in Queens are committed by immigrants: police have their hands tied

The room at the March community meeting was packed with locals seeking answers about shelter safety protocols and logistics. But Edelstein says city leaders haven’t shared all of their plans.

Was the shelter opened secretly?

The pastor said he believed officials opened the shelter "secretly" because they feared public backlash.

“You make a decision, and people step in and want answers,” Reed said. “They knew there would be resistance. They knew that if they did it right, there probably wouldn’t be a shelter.”

A spokesperson for the New York City Department of Social Services (DSS) said proper protocols were in place and local authorities were notified about the shelter “several months in advance.”

“Since the spring of 2022, over 215 people have arrived in New York petitioners shelters and more than 62 remain in the care of the city. Hundreds more continue to arrive each week. This is a huge strain on the city’s existing shelter infrastructure. Providing adequate services and the necessary support for new arrivals has been and remains critical. Additional capacity has been deployed to meet this growing need. Local elected officials were notified of this facility several months in advance. Significant community outreach was conducted prior to the opening. DSS strives to serve everyone in need and is committed to ensuring the safety of our clients and the community at all times,” the statement read.

"There is a difference between immigration and invasion"

Since the shelter opened, Edelstein says theft has become “almost a daily occurrence” in the area. In the documentary, she describes the disturbing moments she and her family have witnessed.

Reed has beefed up security for the upcoming school year, enlisting children's fathers to monitor the streets during the school day for any suspicious behavior and to deter anyone who tries to cause trouble.

“If you don’t speak up, if you don’t intervene, if you don’t have the courage to point out inappropriate things and share your opinion, nothing will change, it will only get worse,” Edelstein concluded.

Brooklyn residents said they welcome legal immigration, but laws must be followed. Edelstein is also an immigrant, having moved to the U.S. from the former Soviet Union as a teenager.

"There is a difference between immigration and invasion," she said.

Reed sympathizes with people trying to improve their lives and helps men at the shelter.

“I saw some immigrants coming to our church,” Reed says in the documentary. “So my heart goes out to them. Unfortunately, they also recognized that there were bad people in the shelters. And that’s the problem.”

Andrea Mew, a representative of the Independent Women's Forum (IWF), explained that these residents are not anti-immigrant. They feel that the New York authorities prioritize illegal immigrants over the safety of their own citizens.

“It’s unfortunate that the city has put more emphasis on trying to accommodate people who are here illegally than it has on protecting the people who have always been here,” Mew said. “New York City is a very vibrant and colorful city. People from all walks of life live here. We have legal immigrants. They understand how bad it is when there is no real system at the border.”

Lawsuit against the city

Since the shelter opened, some residents have questioned the legality and haste of its creation.

Local residents filed a lawsuit against the city and the owner of the shelter building. An investigation found that officials failed to follow environmental testing protocols and violated other building codes to speed up the opening of the shelter.

“The lawsuit, filed in Brooklyn Supreme Court, alleges that the city and 130 Third Owner LLC and BHRAGS Home Care Corp, which will operate the shelter, failed to conduct an environmental review in accordance with state law. The city failed to take into account the area’s long and well-known history of pollution,” the journalists summarized.