Martin Luther King Weekend Family Shelter Closing Midnight Vigil

New York City Councilmember Letitia James speaks at the midnight vigil to see if Governor Paterson will re-open the family homeless shelter the state closed by Eminent Domain on Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. Community groups have been requesting a temporary retroactive moratorium on Eminent Domain to keep the shelter open until Spring. The City of New York says that the families that were in the shelter were moved. If this is true, it still doesn't help new homeless families who will come to the shelter during the rest of the winter months. To close a shelter that serves mostly African-American and Caribbean-American families, in the Winter, and on Martin Luther King's birthday has sent shockwaves through the community. The shelter is scheduled to be torn down for the Barclays Center stadium/Atlantic Yards project. The land it occupies will be used for a parking lot for the project.

The developer, Bruce Ratner, who is embroiled in 3 continuing federal investigations into alleged bribery of Yonkers City Councilmembers has not commented publicly on his company, Forest City Ratner's, closing of the shelter on this, of all days.

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