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Construction on a controversial homeless shelter in Brooklyn will begin this week, city officials confirmed — in spite of hundreds of protesters swarming the site in a bid to stall the new facility.
Work at the 150-capacity men’s shelter at 86th Street and 25th Avenue in Bensonhurst is expected to get underway at any moment after Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration made clear it isn’t backing down.
An exact start date this week was not revealed, but residents against the project were out in full force Sunday and again on Monday.
Police officers and protesters with an “NO SHELTERS!” sign gather around a construction vehicle Sunday night. William C Lopez/New York Post“We have to fight back because this is life and death,” Wang Xiaoyu, 45, told The Post on Monday.
“The people have the power to change things, but we have to be persistent.
“This mayor thinks he has the power to do anything he wants, but that’s not the case. He thinks the best way to make the homeless feel at home is to put them in busy areas like 86th Street, but these people are mentally ill. They need a hospital, not a shelter.”
Several hundred protesters surrounded the site and blocked construction trucks Sunday evening as rumors swirled that workers would break ground as early as Monday morning.
About 100 NYPD officers, including some in riot gear, were forced to respond to quell the crowd who pushed down barricades and surrounded a moving container truck.
Locals are afraid the men’s shelter, which is near several senior housing complexes, will attract drug use, crime and other trouble.
About half as many protesters showed up Monday, and there was no construction activity at the site through the evening.
“We’re not giving up. We’d do whatever it takes to stop them from building. We’ll show up every day, filing legal injunctions, delaying, delaying, delaying,” protester Grace Li, 50, said.
“If the police come, the police come — but we won’t stop fighting because this is our back yard and we won’t let the city house dangerous people here. This is not us being insensitive, this is us being realistic.”
The city stands by the homeless shelter. REUTERSThe group blew whistles, and beat drums, but was not as rowdy as the night before.
Protests against the planned facility is the predominantly Chinese-American district have raged on since the city first notified the community about plans for the homeless shelter in November 2023.
Councilwoman Susan Zhuang, a Democrat, was arrested during a heated July 2024 protest after police said she bit a deputy NYPD chief, but the charges were later dropped.
A City Hall spokesperson stood by the proposed shelter in a statement to The Post.
“Homelessness exists in every part of our city, and in order to effectively address this citywide crisis, we must tackle it across the five boroughs,” a city spokesperson said Monday.
“This forthcoming facility will be the first shelter site in this district and will provide homeless individuals with a wide array of services and supports to help them get back on their feet and build their lives in the city.
“As part of our equitable siting approach, we are committed to ensuring that every community has adequate safety net resources.”
The shelter is slated to open by late 2027, officials said.
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