Since Broadway Family Plaza opened in his neighborhood, Mr. Braun has helped spearhead a number of events to integrate families to the area. The group, which meets in Kingsbridge residents’ living rooms and at nearby Manhattan College, has planned annual Halloween parties, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, as well as celebrations for Mother’s and Father’s Day.
One Kingsbridge resident who initially opposed the shelter is now one of the group’s most dedicated volunteers. “When there was clear opposition and people claiming that the world was going to end if a few homeless people started to have a good place to live in our community, the illogic of that needed to be addressed,” he said in a recent interview. Ivan Braun, a founder of Welcoming Neighbors, on his porch in the Kingsbridge area of the Bronx.
Broadway Family Plaza is one of 23 shelters that have opened since 2017 as part of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Turning the Tide on Homelessness plan. The mayor’s goal is to open 90 shelters to combat the city’s homeless crisis . As of Friday, the city’s shelter population was 58,322, according to city records. Mr. de Blasio’s plan is aimed at reducing that number by 2,500 by 2022. In some neighborhoods, residents have responded to the mayor’s shelter plan with resistance. Residents living along a Midtown corridor dubbed Billionaire’s Row have raised tens of thousands of dollars to help fund a lawsuit that could block the opening of a […]
