Vigilance pays! Once again, the developer who is trying to construct a homeless shelter at 86^th Street and 25^th Avenue has been stopped in his tracks, this time after area residents noticed that work was going on at the site, where a recently posted Stop Work Order had been ripped down.

The Stop Work Order, which was issued on April 25, 2024, reads, “Borough commissioner has ordered all work stopped… due to intent to revoke approvals and permits orders.” Nonetheless, just two days later, on April 27, inspectors returned to the site and found the Stop Work Notice torn down and workers doing work inside the premises for which they did not have a legal permit. The stop work order was reposted and a new violation was issued for work without a permit and work being done outside permitted hours.

This is the second time that watchful community members have taken action to stop unapproved construction at the site, 2501 86^th Street, notifying the offices of Assemblyman William Colton (D—Gravesend, Bensonhurst, Bath Beach and Dyker Heights) and Councilmember Susan Zhuang (D— Bensonhurst, Bath Beach, Gravesend, Dyker Heights, Boro Park and Sunset Park) about the unauthorized work. The developer is Tejpal Sandhu of 86^th Street NY LLC, who has filed papers with the city’s Department of Buildings to construct a 32-room hotel with a community facility attached; the city has served notice that it plans to use the site as a shelter for 150 single men, many of whom struggle with addiction or mental health issues.

Assemblyman Colton assailed Sandhu for pushing ahead with the construction without approved plans. “This is the kind of behavior we have come to associate with this developer, who has no respect for the communities he invades with his projects,” he said. “Previously, he began work on a portion of city-owned sidewalk right as Lunar New Year began, also the Jewish Sabbath – a Saturday when construction work like this is generally prohibited. We stopped him then, and we stopped him this time, and we will continue stopping him at every opportunity till he thinks better of his plan.”

“I would like to thank my staff who diligently followed up with the Department of Buildings about the illegal operations on the property,” said Councilmember Zhuang. “I would also like to share my gratitude for the Department of Buildings who put a stop work order in afterwards. Our community is united in its determination to stop the city's proposal to build a homeless shelter at the heart of our neighborhood. Instead of building more shelters, we need to address the root causes of our city’s rampant homeless problems by providing more affordable housing and job opportunities.”

Sandhu was the developer behind the shelter originally planned for 2147 Bath Avenue that Assemblyman Colton helped derail. According to Assemblyman Colton, the Sandhu Group makes a practice of building so-called hotels in unexpected locations then leasing them to the city which shells out thousands of dollars per resident per month, all coming from taxpayer dollars.

There is tremendous community opposition to this shelter. Over 52,000 people have signed a petition demanding that the city not move forward with it, because, as Assemblyman Colton says, “It is the wrong project in the wrong location – in this case near homes, businesses, schools and religious institutions. It would negatively impact the neighborhood while draining money that could be used to create the real solution – affordable permanent housing and appropriate services to help homeless people in our communities to get their lives back on track.”