With the assistance of Mayor Walsh’s administration and JMA Wireless, Catholic Charities of Onondaga County recently announced plans to move their 100 bed men’s shelter from 1074 South Clinton Street into the West Side and Park Avenue Neighborhood at 501 West Genesee Street. Serious questions and concerns are being raised:

SAFETY

Why does JMA Wireless want to move this shelter away from their multi-million-dollar corporate campus and into our neighborhood of renters, homeowners, and small business owners? Like JMA Wireless, we are very concerned with the adverse effects this shelter would have on the safety and livability of our neighborhood, but unlike JMA Wireless, we have had no part of the decision-making process.

FAIRNESS

The West Side and Park Avenue Neighborhood is already home to many social service agencies like the Rescue Mission, the VA Behavioral Health Center, Circare Health Services, and ACR Health. Concentrating these services for the entire community into one area undermines progress against the root cause issues that many of these agencies seek to address. Why, then, are these services for the entire community being concentrated into our neighborhood?

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

We have invested our time and resources into making this neighborhood a safe and welcoming place for the entire community to live, work, and play. Our concern is that the addition of a 100 bed men’s homeless shelter will reverse the fragile renaissance our neighborhood is currently experiencing. At a time when the city desperately needs a strong tax base to pay for the services used by our community, how will this shelter attract future investment to our neighborhood?

TRANSPARENCY

Why did our neighborhood learn about these plans only after the new shelter location was chosen by Mayor Walsh, JMA Wireless, and Catholic Charities? In 2018, Mayor Walsh let the neighbors of a proposed drug treatment facility decide if they wanted the facility in their neighborhood. He said about the project: “Not all development is good development, and the impact of a project can outweigh the dollar amount of the investment.”  We couldn’t agree more and want to hold Mayor Walsh to the same standard for the West Side and Park Avenue!

PLANS FOR THE SHELTER’S RELOCATION WILL MOVE FORWARD UNLESS THE MAYOR HEARS FROM YOU!

HERE’S HOW YOU CAN HELP:

1) sign this petition online to voice your opposition.

Also, importantly:

2) Call and email Mayor Walsh right away to tell him that our neighborhood doesn’t have the capacity for another homeless shelter: 315-448-8005 and mayor@syrgov.net

3) Call and email Catholic Charities CEO Michael Melara to express your opposition to the shelter’s new location: 315-424-1800 and info@ccoc.us 

Thank you for your support!

https://www.syracuse.com/news/2020/09/fight-brews-as-new-jma-factory-forces-homeless-shelter-to-move-to-syracuse-neighborhood.html