How Do We Get Out of the Race (to the bottom) War
The Brooklyn Chinese community’s mobilization against the proposed shelter in Bensonhurst has put the issue of shelters at the forefront. As these protests escalate, the progressive narrative has started to push back: shelters help people in need — whether they’re migrants or long-time New Yorkers — particularly people of color who are more likely to face eviction and poverty. But when even Mayor Eric Adams uses these “progressive” talking points to slam the anti-shelter protest as racists against single Black men, we should probably start to question ourselves. Do we agree - are shelters the solution? Who actually benefits from building shelters?
Shelters in New York City often implement strict rules, criminalizing residents and taking away their autonomy. People aren’t able to come and go as they please because of curfews, and are under constant surveillance - having their personal possessions searched, and being unable to bring in items as harmless as canned food. If these rules are broken, they face punishment and retaliation - the worst of which is being thrown out and forced to sleep on the street. Residents constantly face threats from corrupt staff, or even violence, harassment, and theft from roommates. Some shelters are so dangerous that residents choose to sleep on the street instead of shelters. These conditions wear residents down physically and emotionally. They do not keep people safe or help them get back on their feet.
However, the anti-shelter protesters we hear about in the media aren’t outraged by the harsh conditions of the shelter system or care about homelessness or shelter residents. Their critique of shelters is that they are bad for their property values and threaten their safety. This fear is promoted by the pro-developer media outlet Singtao Daily which incessantly puts out racist propaganda to paint Black and Brown people as criminals. They are not actually against shelters, but only think that shelters shouldn’t be built near their doorsteps. For this reason, their opposition can never be effective and can easily only be seen as racist. Meanwhile, it obscures the fact that the Mayor is helping luxury developers destroy affordable housing and raise rents and property taxes, pushing working people into homelessness. The protesters’ messaging encourages progressives to be pro-shelter in the name of being anti-racist. New Yorkers begin to point fingers and fight each other, the Mayor uses inflammatory rhetoric to create division, all the while developers reap in millions of dollars in contracts for shelters.
The trap of choosing to support or oppose shelters spreads racism and distracts us from uniting around a real solution. Developers get their pick: make millions off of developing hotels and contracting them out as shelters, or make millions off of developing luxury towers. An article published by The City details how a hotel developer who was also a donor to Mayor Adams’ campaign received multiple multi-million dollar city-funded contracts for her hotels to be converted into shelters and illegally demolished rent-stabilized apartments in order to build more hotels. Our City doesn’t care about ending homelessness or preserving affordable housing — it only cares about making profit.
Homelessness faced by New Yorkers and migrants can’t be solved by forcing them to live in subhuman conditions in shelters - we need truly affordable housing. To avoid the trap of being pit against one another, we should come together across race to address the root causes and demand real changes from both the City and Federal government:
City level. Instead of pumping money into shelter contracts, the City should fund and build permanent low-income housing to end homelessness. Currently there’s a lot of public land, but the City has been giving it to developers to build luxury high-rises, such as the infamous infill plans. To change the City’s pro-developer agenda, we demand the City pass community-led rezoning plans like the Chinatown Working Group Rezoning Plan, which will limit real estate speculation that causes rent and real estate tax increases, as well as mandating new developments on public land to be 100% low-income.
Federal level. Federal government should stop its policy that causes the migrant crisis–wars and interventions in other countries. For a long time, the US has been meddling in other countries such as Venezuela and supporting wars like the Israeli government’s genocidal war against Palestine. As a result, people’s homes are destroyed and they have to migrate to the US to make a living. Meanwhile, a big portion of our taxpayer money goes to supporting wars. Stopping wars and interventions will end the migrant crisis and shift resources to support solutions here, such as building 100% low-income housing.
Join us to demand real solutions to unite our communities!