It is wrong for the City or State government to turn hotels into shelters or build shelters to solve the problem of homelessness. Not only is it unfair to low-income communities of color, but it is also not good for homeless people and families, and does not solve their housing and livelihood issues at all. We want the government to stop wasting taxpayers’ money fattening up the rich and real estate developers who run hotels and shelters. We demand the State and City governments use public funds to build low-income housing for working people, who are increasingly unable to afford rising rents, instead of paying big developers to build only luxury high-rises and hotels on one hand, and homeless shelters on the other.

For example, the vacant land next to Confucius Plaza and NYCHA can be used to build low-income housing. Yet after the 1960s, the Federal government has hardly built any public housing. Doesn’t the government know that the population is growing and the gap between the rich and the poor is widening? Or does it only know to let real estate developers build high-rises to make more money?

We have reservations about the anti-shelter movement on 86th Street in Brooklyn, which criminalizes homeless people. Opposing homeless shelters but only caring about themselves and not homeless people, they are pitted against other communities by the City government and big developers. This only benefits big developers. Their criminalization of homeless people is similar to Trump’s criminalization of immigrants. It makes sense that the Democratic Party tends to support homeless shelters and the Republican Party tends to oppose shelters! Support or opposition falls into the trap of the ruling class (in New York City, this is basically the real estate and financial capital class). Trump and the Republican Party claim to only target undocumented immigrants, but in fact, they are criminalizing all immigrants! The Democratic Party claims to care about undocumented immigrants, but in fact it is doing everything possible to keep immigrants as an underclass of labor. Immigrants  are pitted against the so-called native workers. Whether it is the Republican or Democratic Party, the main line of their policies is to divide the working class, deepen racial tension and deepen exploitation.

The current anti-shelter movement on 86th St is not  really against shelters, but only against shelters near their homes. This movement can easily be used by those with ulterior motives or misunderstood as anti-Black or anti-homeless people and families. We shouldn’t let the Chinese  community be isolated, which will bring only harm to us Chinese. In case you have doubts about this, Mayor Adams has already said that the anti-shelter movement on 86th St is against single Black men. And the Sing Tao Daily, which has always encouraged big developers and home care agencies to abuse our community , has promoted the 86th Street movement every day. This makes even more clear that this movement does not help our community

We must break the isolation of the Chinese community, care about the conditions of the residents in the shelter, and unite across race to demand the government build low-income housing and stop helping big developers from displacing our communities.

Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association
212-334-2333