Last updated Jan 27, 2023 7 Comments 0

Tillary Street Women's Shelter

The Tillary Street Women's Shelter is a 200-bed city-funded shelter for women with mental illness and co-morbid substance abuse disorders. Located in downtown Brooklyn. The shelter provides temporary housing, case management, housing referral and (more) placement services, and on-site medical and mental health services.

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Questions & Answers

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Know the answer to a quesiton? Help others out by responding.

If you have stayed in this shelter, how was your stay?

User Answers

  1. Not everyone in this shelter has mental illness. There is also a small percentage of general population!

    Answer posted on Sep 7, 2021 0
  2. My stay was crazy, glad I got out of there.

    Answer posted on Feb 6, 2023 0
  3. Horrific!

    Answer posted on Oct 2, 2023 0

Is this a safe shelter to stay in?

User Answers

  1. If your very street smart, respectful of other women, know how to efficiently defend yourself if in a challenging situation, keep to yourself, sleep with your money in your bra and your phone hidden on you, do not stay there all day; they kick you out in the morning, then just come back at night before bed check (10pm sharp). No one ever bothered me, but I’m a tough white girl with a lot of tats

    Answer posted on Mar 10, 2021 0
  2. No not at all

    Answer posted on Feb 6, 2023 0
  3. No!

    Answer posted on Oct 2, 2023 0

Do they accept pets at this shelter?

User Answers

  1. No

    Answer posted on Mar 11, 2021 0
  2. If it’s a service dog they have to.

    Answer posted on May 13, 2021 0
  3. Service dog or emotional support animal (with proper documentation)

    Answer posted on Oct 2, 2023 0

Do you have any advice for those wanting to stay at this shelter?

User Answers

  1. Don’t.

    Answer posted on May 13, 2021 0
  2. Try not too

    Answer posted on Jul 15, 2022 0
  3. Stay to yourself!

    Answer posted on Oct 2, 2023 0

How long can you stay here?

User Answers

  1. For life.

    Answer posted on May 13, 2021 0
  2. It honestly depends on you…If you keep your eyes on the proverbial “prize, you’re stay will be shortened compared to others.

    Answer posted on Oct 2, 2023 0

7 Comments

  1. Ayesha
    Ayesha
    Mar 26, 2019Reply
    Fair and kind staff.... nice case workers I made friends there....God bless Tillary
  2. Adi
    Adi
    May 3, 2019Reply
    Dangerous HellHole. My life was threatened daily. I was robbed of all my belongings, including clothes,on Day 1 by the corrupt staff. Needed surgery from bad food. Despite my history of strokes and heart attacks, I had to breath in cigarette smoke everywhere I went. Felt like I had gone into Hell on Earth.
  3. Ari
    Ari
    May 8, 2019Reply
    I was threatened too and robbed by both staff and residents. Brooklyn's inferno to be real. Muy Peligroso! And always sick from food....when there was enuf. Dangerous air,ppl are mostly ex-convicts. Drug use everywhere, so
  4. Cindy
    Cindy
    Sep 2, 2019Reply
    I was a client there many yrs. ago. I now live in Nevada and live a Christian lifestyle.
  5. Cindy
    Cindy
    May 6, 2020Reply
    I was there years ago. I was homeless from Washington state. I was treated with the utmost respect and dignity by Brooklyn women's shelter staff. I would recommend it to any woman who needs a safe place to sleep at night.
  6. Om
    Om
    Mar 4, 2021Reply
    Greetings, ladies! I was just reading these reviews, and I must say that the first review by the woman supposedly from Washington State is 100% untrue. I ended up homeless at age 34, and first went to Franklin women’s shelter in the South Bronx to be “assessed” on where to be sent next. This is not a permanent shelter. I caught bed bugs the first night I stayed there due to the staff blowing off cleaning the beds when a client leaves. The lady I became friendly with got them too, and blamed ME for that! So much for our “friendship!” That was destroyed. So, I have psych issues and the psychiatrist assessed me and he sent me to Tillary women’s shelter. It is a MICA shelter. All the women there have substance abuse issues/mental health problems. I never spoke about drugs so I don’t know why I was sent there. They have a male psychiatrist who is a pompous jerk there if you needs med scripts. He won’t help you get SSI. Anyways!! This is a true story: it was my first night there. I walked in the building.. this friendly woman said to me “welcome to hell!” I had the intake done, was told to put my clothes thru the dryer to kill potential bed bugs, then was taken to the 6th floor in the elevator. (Oh there’s a metal detector there too). They gave me a crappy pillow and some toiletries and assigned me a bed and locker. Right away, a nice Spanish lady said hi to me. ( I’m white, but speak Spanish;) She was really cool to me. I felt pretty good so far. Decent energy in the room. I had to share a room with 8 other women and we had one bathroom & shower. I just settled into my small “bed,” and put stuff away in my locker, my money in my bra, etc. and I heard a woman screaming from another room!! Listen, at Tillary, the police and ambulance was there quite often. I lived there for 10 months til I found very shitty housing. I took it cause everything else were “shares” = 2-3 other women in the place. No way!! Sooo.. apparently a woman had come on to another lady sexually, and was turned down. She bit her breast and attacked her right in the room next door to me!! And that was my first night there!! The “security guards” were scared of us clients to intervene in altercations and the loser of the fight would be pretty fucked up by the winner by the time “help” arrived. 10 o’clock curfew. They kicked you out by, I think 9 or 10.. I forgot it was so long ago. The projects are close by and we heard gun shots here n’ there. Sleazy, predator-men and young guys would hang around outside and hit on desperate looking women so they could manipulate the women, and convince them to “go with them.” Obviously, the women were hoping to get money or drugs from these guys, but something tells me the homeless, desperate women would NOT be the ones coming out ahead in whatever shady “deal” they’d make with those low grade low life wannabe hustlers!! I was approached; I said no thx. So....I saw women get cut, jumped, beaten up, one had her bed thrown out of our room for smoking crack in the room. (Weed was okay, but if this one tough, hot lesbian caught someone with that crack pipe, she was done! There was a kind woman in our room who had refused to shower for almost 2 years! She was taunted, had water thrown on her, beaten up, etc. To sum up my experience at Tillary women’s shelter, I’d have to say my street smarts, respect of other women, seeing all the other women (especially the great women in my room) as my sisters, and we were all in a shitty situation, so I tried to have fun and make the best of it, not one woman started a fight with me for no reason, disrespected me, or hurt me. I choose my battles and have done ok so far. I’ve got several tats, am white, have a man’s short blonde haircut, and am 5’8, busty, and am nice to people, but could definitely be a force to be reckoned with. I’ve read articles where women were found dead in the bathrooms. The housing option I took was the only place where I’d have my own space. I knew nothing about the neighborhood (it’s the most “dangerous” in nyc), but again, I feel lucky and blessed because I’m a minority there, and have no problems at all with anyone. I’ve had more people start shit with me in more upscale white neighborhoods! All my friends have been criminals since I moved to nyc at the young age of 18, so I feel comfortable living in the hood. The best part about living at Tillary was (I’m proudly bisexual) and so many 19-26 year old lesbians would hit on me! That was flattering:) No one ever stole anything from me at Tillary. I had a problem, and the lady in charge there was very good to me. It’s a LONG walk from the subway though! Yuck! If your not in your bed at 10pm sharp they’ll empty out your locker and put your stuff in storage. You will probably have to sleep on chairs; that happened to me at Franklin women’s assessment shelter. I was late home one night, and they moved me. But that was great because I was no longer buddies with the woman I had gotten friendly and slept next to because she got mad at ME due to her catching bedbugs. Hey, * I* didn’t bring them in! I never thought I’d “live” in a shelter. Some women live there and work “save money.” To me, the environment is too unpredictable, abc that would definitely NOT be worth it! The awful reality is that all it takes is one maniac psycho that feels like murdering an innocent person in the bed next to them, and your done. BE CAREFUL! Please!!’
  7. Evan
    Evan
    Mar 18, 2021Reply
    It's hard in NYC if you are homeless. I left New York City because I was assaulted by a very tall black transgender woman in the hotel Tillary sent me to a year ago. The security are beyond rude and unprofessional. They will do anything to make you crumble

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