A 200-bed homeless shelter to be used by the entire city is planned for Greenpoint. The neighborhood's inhabitants and business owners are not happy about it.

There are already three homeless shelters in Northern Brooklyn; however, the one that is planned to occupy a four-story post-industrial building at McGuiness Blvd. and Clay Street would be the largest. It will hold 200 beds and serve the homeless from areas beyond Greenpoint.

The shelter is being funded by HELP USA, a nonprofit, which is one of the country's largest builders and operators of transitional and permanent low-income housing. The organization is run by Maria Cuomo Cole, gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo's sister.

Many Polish business owners and people living in Greenpoint do not like the idea of having the shelter in their neighborhood. They are afraid that the presence of 200 homeless men will contribute to the rise of crime and decrease the neighborhood's attractiveness and adversely affect real estate prices. They are getting ready to protest.

"We have allowed for way too much here. I am talking about the waste treatment plant at the east coast of Greenpoint and the garbage landfill at Humboldt Street. It is time business and home owners, as well as people who rent places here, got together and prevented another thing that will negatively impact the image of our neighborhood," said Aneta from Leonard Street, who has lived in Greenpoint for 12 years. Aneta, her husband Andrzej and a group of friends are planning to join a protest group organized by Jacek Karczmarz, owner of a small repair shop on McGuiness Boulevard and Dupont Sreet.

Aneta and other protesters are also planning to attend the upcoming Public Safety Community Meeting and Public Hearing and Board Meeting, where they want to voice their opinions on the shelter.

City Councilman Steven Levin (D), representing District 33, is also against building the homeless shelter in Greenpoint. "According to plans, the homeless people would not live here permanently, but would stay here for only a month, leaving space for newcomers," says Rami Metal from the councilman's office, adding that Greenpoint has for years been dealing with its own homeless people. "We need to first solve our own problem, instead of bringing 200 more homeless form other neighborhoods," Metal adds.

Jan Pukianiec, from Pro-Life, Homeless St. Vincent A. Paulo Society, [a Polish organization that reaches out to the homeless], who has for years been engaged in helping the homeless Poles in Greenpoint, stated the small shelters that used to exist in this neighborhood brought very successful results in the past.

"Many of those who lived in the streets managed to quit addictions and return to normal life," says Pukianiec, estimating that there is around 40 Poles living in the streets of Greenpoint. "A new shelter would be a chance for many Polish homeless men," he says. Pukianiec, who says he understands that the prospect of a 200-bed homeless shelter in the Polish neighborhood may be of concern to many, also explains that many homeless people used to have regular lives before, and now need help in order to get back on their feet.

He wishes that at least a smaller home could be build here for "the 40 homeless Poles living in the streets. The Polonia should support the idea," he said.

Although some fear that because HELP USA is run by Maria Cuomo Cole it will be difficult to contest the project, in fact no biding decision in this case has been made yet. Both the city Department of Homeless Services and HELP USA are declining to comment because the project is still in the negotiation phase.

What is known is that the site for the planned shelter was recently sold by Winderheuser Group, LLC, but the company's owner declined to reveal the buyer's name. He did admit that the building was sold for less than he had been expecting to get.

Rami Metal points out that the building, which used to be a commercial warehouse, has been converted to illegal lofts. "There are people still living there. With new legislation that recently came into force, such tenants have legal protection. We don't know yet if something like a shelter can be established in the building with tenants in it."