Mr. Dan and the Help USA Board,
Let’s be crystal clear: We reject your 225 25th Street development. You are not welcome in our neighborhood!
You’ve ignored more than a year of firm opposition from our community, letters from our Congressman, and our Council Member (attached). Yet somehow, you still push forward Mr. Levitan’s deeply troubling shelter project.
Now your team will march into the Community Board 7 Housing Committee meeting on September 15th to present “your wonderful plan.”
We’ll be there too—looking you in the eye and saying what you refuse to hear: Enough is enough. But honestly, we doubt you’ll show up yourself.
And let’s talk about conflicts of interest. Your Chief of Staff, Martha Kenton, just recently held a top post at DSS/DHS—the very agency now handing you this super lucrative contract. A revolving door, how convenient! As if that weren’t enough, Ms. Kenton is also currently the subject of a lawsuit alleging discrimination and workplace mobbing against an older Muslim woman DSS employee. Serious allegations, but clearly not serious enough to give you pause. Why? Because your backdoor deal with a known slumlord will be signed, sealed, and delivered.
Your bloated CEO salary is paid by our tax dollars. We are confused by a board that congratulates itself for “helping the homeless” in a display of moral posturing, while siting another shelter within two blocks of five existing shelters, in a toxic warehouse unfit for residential use.
You don’t get it, do you? No means NO!
We will not be gaslit, we will not be ignored, and we will not roll over for your shady deal.
We demand that the city and all of its contracted non-profits follow the city’s fair share policy and work exclusively with ethical landlords and developers.
So here’s the message, plain enough: DO NOT COME. And to put it politely—though you hardly deserve it—YOU ARE NOT WELCOME!
GWHA