There are still outstanding issues with the certificate of occupancy for 78-16 Cooper Avenue, but that didn’t stop the City from housing 120 shelter residents there. Upstate prisons and Rikers Island jails were releasing inmates due to COVID, and they needed a place to send them. With more than a dozen staff members, there are close to 140 people in the facility. The site has been dubbed the “Cooper Rapid Rehousing Center” by the Department of Homeless Services and the agency claims that the men housed there are all “looking for work”. One of the residents has already been arrested for a stabbing.