Sheepshead Bay Residents Continue to Fight Proposed Homeless Shelter

*updated November 14, 2025

*updated November 8, 2025

“You’ve failed as a human being. Shame on you,” reads a comment on Jessica Chan’s TikTok video opposing a proposed homeless shelter in her community. Chan, a nursing student at Long Island University and a resident of Sheepshead Bay, has faced criticism for sharing her opposition to the Coyle Family Residence located at 2134 Coyle Street in Brooklyn.

When asked why she opposes it, Chan said, “My concerns are about safety and security. I have no problem with homeless shelters, the problem is the effectiveness of it. Homeless shelters are only a temporary solution.”

Housing affordability is a big deal to the densely packed Sheepshead Bay neighborhood. In 2023, 31.2% of renters were rent burdened and spent more than 50% of their income to pay rent. The ethnicity is diverse with about 65% White, 15% Asian, 9% Hispanic and 4% Black residents.

In the Spring of 2025, residents were informed at a community board meeting that their neighborhood would no longer be receiving the affordable housing project they originally welcomed. Instead a homeless shelter would be built on the designated site. The announcement took them by surprise.

The change of plans came after the developer who made the agreement with the city and the community sold the site in 2023 to Westhab, which  focuses on affordable housing, and homeless shelters. Residents say that while the previous developers had signed agreements with homeowners to build affordable housing, Westhab had no agreement with them for the homeless shelter. 

Ken Wong, a Sheepshead Bay resident, said he felt lied to after learning about the change. “If the city wants to build a homeless shelter, the community should agree to it first. This is not a suitable place to build a homeless shelter because it should be built in a place that won’t affect the surrounding areas,” he said. Wong worries how the homeless shelter may affect safety in the neighborhood. 

Community leaders and advocates have sided with homeowners. Dimple Willabus, running for city council, and Lena Chen started a petition and organized a protest to alert the community. 

Willabus said she found out through legal documents that Mercedes Narcisse, the city council member for District 46, had been aware of the change since July 28th, 2023. The Department of Homeless Services (DHS) said that the decision to change the site plans was made by the developer. Westhab said it notified the community about the change that same year.

City records show that the city put out a bid for the project in November 2024 with Westhab as the vendor.  Although Council Member Narcisse claims that she didn’t know about it. When confronted by activists, Narcisse denied knowing about the project before the community board meeting in the spring of 2025.   Some neighbors said she sent an email stating her opposition to the shelter and at the time she claimed she didn’t believe the plan was real. But Willabus who ran unsuccessfully against Narcisse in the Democratic primary in June, and will try again as a Conservative Party candidate in November, disagrees. She said, “My opinion is that she didn’t do her job.”

Two days after the community board meeting in spring 2026, Westhab workers arrived to start demolition on Coyle Street. Residents, including Willabus, stood in front of the construction equipment and refused to let them start demolition. “I stood there and told them they couldn’t come in unless they showed me the documents stating they had authority to be there,” she said.  Police arrived to mediate, but everyone left without achieving anything. 

A few days later, Westhab sued  the homeowners on nearby 4th Street because they blocked the demolition. On May 7th, a New York State Supreme court judge ruled in favor of the homeowners.

Senator Stephen Chan  supports the homeowners. His office told Harlem View that the plan to put a homeless shelter on Coyle Street was, “A clear bait-and-switch that undermines public trust.” Chan’s staffer said that the, “property should be developed as affordable housing with priority for local residents.” He said, “Our teachers, seniors, working families, and young people are being priced out of their own neighborhood, we need to help them. Our community supports helping those in need, but the City must do so honestly and with transparency.”

But Michael Kuczkowski, a spokesman for Westhab, said in a statement to Harlem View, “Residents of this shelter will be Brooklyn families with children who have fallen on hard times and who, with Westhab’s support, will be working their way toward permanent housing.” 

The conflict is still ongoing. Through the courts Westhab is trying to get temporary access to the residents’ properties to begin construction.  Of the 11 lawsuits filed by the developer, two were dismissed on October 7th after the homeowners reached an agreement with the developer. The other nine cases were originally scheduled for October 22nd but have been postponed to October 29th.  

Kuczkowski said that Westhab aims “to make Coyle Street a model for how neighborhoods can compassionately address family homelessness.” He said that Westhab is committed “to building safely and responsibly, and that includes taking steps to protect neighboring properties during construction and that state law provides a process for obtaining access when needed for this purpose, and we have initiated Section 881 proceedings to ensure proper safeguards are in place. The site will include “24/7 professional security, on-site programming, and a full-time professional staff.”

He anticipates that construction will begin soon and will be completed by 2027. 

The protests have also gotten the attention of Curtis Sliwa, the Republican candidate running for mayor. Sliwa has been advocating for communities in Brooklyn and their concerns about homeless shelters. He also opposed the homeless shelter in Bensonhurst and was actively involved. “I don’t see any shelters on Park Avenue where the rich live, or Sutton Place, or Billionaire’s Road,” he said. He continues, “They tell people in the outer boroughs you must have a shelter but they never have a shelter themselves.” 

We’ll continue to follow the story.

*This story was updated because of an editing error that misspelled Michael Kuczkowski’s last name and misidentified him.