New York City has approved plans for a homeless men’s shelter in the middle of Staten Island’s South Shore — a testament to Mayor Mamdani’s disdain for a neglected and neglected area, locals told The Post.
Frustrated residents believe a 160-bed shelter is coming to the corner of Arthur Kill and Richmond Valley Road. Charleston it will bring crime, drugs and loitering, and this move looks like another insult from a socialist mayor.
“One hundred percent he wants to hurt us because we vote in an organized way,” said Bruce Daniele, whose Intoxx Fitness business is across the street from the planned shelter.
The South Shore of Staten Island voted overwhelmingly for Andrew Cuomo in the 2025 mayoral election.
The shelter will house employed and unemployed single men, and provide services to help them find jobs and “stabilize their lives,” the Department of Homeless Services told The Post.
The city confirmed the plans on March 5 — the same day Hizzoner announced that the Bellevue men’s shelter in Manhattan would close.
“If the goal is to help people stabilize their lives and find work, putting a large shelter in a transient desert makes no sense,” Republican Councilman Frank Morano told The Post.
The South Shore region is middle-class and residential, with few social services and poor transportation options. The only train station is a 20-minute walk from the shelter, and buses can take 90 minutes to reach Manhattan.
A petition against the asylum has received hundreds of signatures.
Local leaders said they are still in the dark about the facility, which will be overseen by non-profit organization Community Housing Innovations (CHI) and is expected to open in mid-2027.
They said they never saw the release of the proposed four-story building or were told how much it would cost taxpayers.
“I hope politics don’t come into play here,” Borough President Vito Fossella told The Post. “But the blizzard and not getting 2-K seats — getting this homeless shelter . . . three strikes in a row.”
He was referring to complaints that the city was slow to clear sidewalks after a snowstorm in late February, and Mamdani’s 2-K pilot program that would include classrooms in every district except Staten Island.
“It seems that we have forgotten about all the good things, but we are remembered for the bad things,” said Morano.
The project’s developers bought the building in 2023 under Richmond Valley LLC, but public records show the company is tied to the Sandhu Group — which owns hotels in the city’s immigrant settlement.
Applications submitted to the city describe the building as a “hotel and community center” – not a homeless shelter.
“It was a game changer,” Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis told The Post. At first, the place was supposed to be a temporary hotel – which the locals also opposed – then there were rumors of a shelter.
But Fossella said former Mayor Eric Adams assured him last year that a shelter would not be built in that room. “The city lied to the public,” Malliotakis said.
“A hotel and a shelter are not the same thing,” Morano said. “If this project is approved under one section but implemented under another, that raises serious questions about transparency and whether the proper procedures have been followed.”
The shelter is just minutes’ walk from three children’s dance studios and homes.
“If this is done, I would consider moving,” one neighbor and business owner told The Post. “There’s a gym right here, there’s a dance studio downstairs. This is not the right place for homeless men.”
“I don’t see how I can work safely,” said Gail Criscione, owner of the Starstruck dance studio, a five-minute walk from the shelter and where 1,000 students come and go until 11 p.m., she explained. “I just think about my girls at night.”
Staten Island officials have called for a public hearing – saying residents have a right to scrutinize what’s happening in their community.
“Our residents don’t deserve this shelter, but they deserve a chance to be heard. And, they deserve to be heard as soon as possible,” said Fossella.
The mayor’s office and the Sandhu Group did not respond to requests for comment.
