Living in New York City, a person gets used to strange sightings on the street, but even though I’m a lifelong New Yorker I have been stunned by the sight of wild turkeys ambling nonchalantly on the North Shore streets of Staten Island. I had been skeptical of the reports until I actually spotted the fowl with my own eyes. These turkeys are a welcome sight, but neighbors in the St. George community are up in arms at what they view as a real turkey: a mental-health facility scheduled to be built in their midst by St. Vincent’s Catholic Medical Center.

About 200 residents crowded a meeting of Community Board 1 on Tuesday to protest plans to convert a convent on Fort Place into housing for mentally ill patients. “Enough is enough” seems to be the cry of a beleaguered community that has been saturated by social-service agencies. The vice chairman of the Downtown Staten Island Council, Kevin Barry, said to me, “This is not a typical Nimby, knee-jerk reaction. Clearly our community has, to its detriment, opened its arms to social programs, and currently we shoulder the overwhelming burden of housing the myriad of programs that exist in walking distance of the ferry.”

He went on to explain that St. Vincent’s already operates three medical service programs on the North Shore, which is an area just emerging from an economic blight. Its proximity to Wall Street and downtown Manhattan makes it an easy commute. Relatively inexpensive condos and co-op apartments are being swept up in the real estate market, and gentrification has brought in a host of new residents who are not likely to be ignored.

Mr. Barry explained that the North Shore is politically Democratic while the power base on Staten Island is Republican. “It is the Downtown Council’s position that the hospital intentionally places these programs in areas that are socioeconomically disadvantaged within communities that are not politically enfranchised,” he said. “They claim that this is the only affordable location in S.I. However, the placement of these programs has the resulting effect of artificially depressing our property values, resulting in a fait accompli which is self-perpetuating.”

I contacted a St. Vincent’s spokesman, Jim McMahon, about this charge, and he insisted that the hospital had checked other sites but the convent became available and was accommodating to its needs. When I asked if the hospital was determined to go ahead with the planned facility, he said: “We will be discussing this with the residents of the community. There will be ongoing discussions.”

Mr. Barry had told me, “The specious argument offered by any one of these programs that their clients live in our ZIP codes is dishonest. Factually they relocate to our communities to avail themselves of all these programs, using the ample public transportation that exists here. The question is, where did they originally reside?”

I asked Mr. McMahon if the mental patients to be housed at St. George were from the North Shore. He hesitated, then said: “I don’t have that information available. I don’t know.”

I can attest that the social services that are situated in my North Shore neighborhood, Stapleton, serve a clientele that lives in other areas of the Island or in other boroughs.

The St. George neighborhood has a reputation for compassion. There are already 11 rehabilitation facilities located within a four-block radius. The hospital plans to convert the former convent to 59 apartments, to house “stable” patients with mental illnesses. Residents of the supervised facility could include recovering drug addicts or people dealing with depression.

A Fort Place resident at the CB1 meeting, Larraine Jones, said: “P.S. 16 is down the block, and two or three school buses stop there. When you say stable, we don’t know how stable these people are going to be. You just don’t know.”

Considering the recent deaths of children around the country, these concerns are not to be taken likely. I asked Mr. McMahon why patients who required medication wouldn’t be housed in a hospital setting. He answered, “Not everyone who needs medication needs to be in a hospital.”

That is certainly true, but it doesn’t explain why the $3 million that St. Vincent’s is spending to buy the former convent can’t be used to build an annex on the grounds of the Medical Center on Bard Avenue. For that matter, the Daughters of St. Paul, who own the convent, could probably get more for their property if the bidding was reopened.

Another Fort Place resident, Lorelei Stevens, said: “Ironically, this may be the one place on Staten Island where residents wouldn’t oppose it being torn down for townhouses.”

The large turnout this week and the expected one for next Tuesday’s CB1 meeting is an indication that this “turkey” may have to roost elsewhere.