Push for panels to site shelters

A CITY councilman wants to take the politics out of locating homeless shelters by having an independent commission decide where new ones should be built.

Councilman David Greenfield will introduce a bill Thursday to create a 15-member commission composed of five appointees from the mayor, five from the City Council speaker, and one by each of the five borough presidents.

“It’s an ambitious solution for what is essentially a political problem, where the politics of placing homeless shelters prevents them from getting built,” Greenfield said.

The mayor has the power to site homeless shelters and plans to build 90 new ones, but he often meets resistance from community groups.