$65 million over 5 years. So $13 million a year. I suspect people have no idea what it costs to actually run things so every big number sounds astronomical to them.
Construction and labor are the major costs for any project. Here, they're building a separate facility plus staffing costs. But given the bitching that people have whenever transgender people want to spend time in the spaces for the gender they're transitioning to and/or the violence that is visited upon them, a separate facility is the best option.
What exactly do people want instead? Put men transitioning into women into female homeless shelters so they can bitch if something negative happens? Or put them into male homeless shelters where they're targeted for violence? Or leave them on the street so people can bitch if something negative happens on the street?
People have to be realistic about what it costs to solve the problems in front of them. NYC doesn't need a separate transgender shelter if they could just put people in the shelters that the individuals identified with.