By Adam Kramer
In what might have been the Queens Women’s Center’s last weekend at its home and headquarters on Fort Totten, the center held a two-day open house to explain to the borough the importance of the center and to publicize its plight.
The center, on the verge of losing its protracted fight to hold onto its home at the decommissioned Bayside fort, faces what seems to be its third and final eviction deadline Thursday from the city’s Corporation Council. On Saturday afternoon the open house attracted more than 30 people, including state Assemblyman Mark Weprin (D-Bayside), state Assemblywoman Ann-Margaret Carrozza (D-Bayside) and a representative of U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey (D-Forest Hills).
“I am fighting as hard as I can because so many of you are behind me,” said Ann Jawin, the founder of the Queens Women’s Center, during a presentation highlighting the center’s various programs.
“There must be a reason why they want us out,” she said. “I just can’t figure out why.”
She said the open house was held to educate and inform people about the center. Jawin said people read about the group in the press but never stop and visit. Now, she said, the borough’s residents had an invitation to see for themselves all the center had to offer.
Michael Manning, Lowey’s district representative, said Lowey would support the center and urged the audience to call and pressure elected officials to make sure the center can keep its home at the fort.
“I am here to support Ann Jawin,” Weprin said. “She is a passionate force in the community and we need to support her center.”
Fort Totten, decommissioned by the U.S. Army in 1995, is about to be taken over by the city and divided between the Parks and Fire departments. Several non-profit organizations call the fort their home, but only the women’s center has been handed an eviction notice.
Jawin denied knowing when she moved in that she could at some point be asked to vacate the premises, saying she thought the center could apply for permanent status. The Queens Women’s Center, she said, was not in the original group of buildings that were to be taken over by the Fire Department.
But she said two years later the FDNY decided it wanted to use the building. One FDNY official has said the space will become part of the department’s educational campus, which will be based at Totten once the city takes over the land.
The Queen’s Woman Center, founded in 1987, has called Building #401 at Fort Totten its home since 1997. In November it received an eviction notice from the FDNY saying it would have to be out by Dec. 13. After obtaining a lawyer, the center was able to push back its eviction to Jan. 15 but did not leave.
Jawin was told by the city’s Corporation Counsel that the center would have to vacate the building by Feb. 28.
“We saved this building,” Jawin said. “We watch this building. I don’t see why the building has to stay under the Fire Department’s control.”
The Queens Women’s Center provides a wide range of services to women and families, including job training, day-care training, counseling, funding and training for women to start their own businesses.
Jawin told the crowd she did not know why her organization was the one of the four non-profits on the old Army base singled out for eviction. She said space is at a premium in Queens and basically impossible to find.
“What are they going to do here?” Jawin said. “The only thing I see alive are the ducks. I am not accepting this type of defeat. I kind of feel it may not happen.”
Reach reporter Adam Kramer by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 157.
