Looking for shelter (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

As an Upper West Side resident, I’ve heard a lot of discussion recently about plans for a Safe Haven on West 83rd Street. While many of my neighbors have expressed excitement about this new neighborhood resource, others have voiced concerns about its potential impact on the safety of our neighborhood.

I’m a former prosecutor and an advocate for survivors of crime and their families. I’m also a mom of three — two in New York City public schools and one in diapers. Believe me: I care about community safety. Yours, mine, my children’s — everyone’s. And there is nothing about this project that makes me feel unsafe.

This Safe Haven, which will be run by Breaking Ground, a pioneer of solutions to end homelessness, will provide shelter and robust on-site wrap-around services for single adults who are currently living on the streets. The Safe Haven will offer psychiatric and medical care, case management, and housing and harm-reduction specialists, among other services for residents.

Importantly, it will provide more privacy than typical shelters do, with one-, two-, three-, or four-person rooms, instead of the possible 30 or 50 cots to a giant room that might be found at some of the larger shelters. Lack of privacy and dignity is one of the main reasons why folks hesitate to enter traditional shelters, as is losing belongings or being separated from service animals, another thing that won’t happen at this site (residents will be allowed to keep their animals as long as space allows).

It’s no surprise, then, that the Safe Haven model has proven more effective at getting people inside and connected to services. From 2020 to 2022, as city data on the outcomes of end-of-line subway outreach showed, 63% of individuals offered Safe Haven beds stayed there long-term, compared to just 24% of individuals placed in traditional shelters.

If we want to prevent crime, this is exactly the kind of community investment we need, alongside investments in permanent affordable housing. Contrary to the idea that a Safe Haven is dangerous for the surrounding neighborhood, research shows that investing in housing and mental health services decreases crime.

Which is why I find the arguments against this site so cynical. Those making them, most recently on the Fox and Friends television program, know that blocking this Safe Haven will not do anything to make New York safer or stronger. They’re just hoping that they can displace poverty and need to someone else’s neighborhood. They want to use their wealth and political power to do what white Americans have been doing for centuries: keeping opportunity for themselves, and keeping Black and brown New Yorkers out.

As I prepare to move into a home in the West 70s from my current home in the West 90s, knowing this Safe Haven will be nearby provides me peace of mind. Homelessness already exists in our city and our neighborhood. Right now, when my family crosses paths with neighbors who are unsheltered, we have few nearby options to offer them. 

Folks who want to come inside are required to travel to large intake shelters in the Bronx and Midtown, where they often sleep in rooms with dozens of people and are subject to onerous restrictions and curfews. Some decide it’s not worth it. The addition of this Safe Haven changes things: it will give people an option to connect with nearby shelter and services. With this Safe Haven, people will be referred directly by street outreach teams — allowing them to come straight inside to a smaller setting. It provides low-barrier entry, wrap-around support, and helps address problems that can feel intractable, including providing access to care for people living with mental illness.

And, far from feeling as though this shelter is some kind of threat to my children, I view it as an opportunity for them to learn to exist in a world of deep injustices. Trying to seal our children off from the reality of these inequalities doesn’t make them go away. My family is so lucky — we have so much.

I want my children to grow up with a sense of empathy and care for the people around them who have less.

In a deeply unequal city, I want my children to understand that every person deserves respect and compassion. And I want them to fight for a world where that vision is fully realized — a world where no one has to sleep outside.

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Ilana Turko is an Upper West Side mother of three children and former employee of the New York City Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice. Her last role in government was as the founding Executive Director of the country's first municipal Office of Crime Victim Supports.