Here is the view of a schoolyard from a window in a new Upper West Side homeless shelter that will house more than 100 unvetted vagrants.
The shocking snap, posted on Twitter by activist Jason Curtis Anderson, was taken within spitting distance of the P.S. 9 schoolyard — from inside a room at 106-108 West 83rd Street, which the nonprofit Breaking Ground plans to open in the coming weeks as a 108-bed “safe haven” transitional shelter.
“Check out the view from the new UWS homeless shelter that won’t have curfews, sobriety requirements or criminal background
checks!” Anderson wrote.
“Sex offenders will be free to watch children play while they masturbate.”
In the image, many young children can be seen through the window, standing around the gated-off school grounds and climbing on a yellow-and-orange playground.
The fact that the “low-barrier” shelter will house homeless individuals without requiring criminal background checks has outraged many community parents and residents.
“It’s bad enough that we have to worry about school shootings, and now this?” said Jessica Snead, whose fifth-grade daughter attends P.S. 9.
“School is supposed to be safe for kids, and they’re not feeling safe right now.”
Others also fretted that while Breaking Ground claims it will not allow sex offenders with residency restrictions to shack up at the shelter, they believe it is still possible for creeps to get beds in the building.
“Not all registered sex offenders have residency restrictions, so they could wind up there,” said Lucas Liu, president of Community Education Council 3.
Liu noted that given the upcoming shelter’s location — across from P.S. 9 as well as M.S. 243 — the building could have been better suited by housing homeless families with students.
“It just boggles my mind that they couldn’t come up with a better, more appropriate use of that shelter,” he said.
