Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday night made a stunning about-face on a plan to turn an abandoned Harlem luxury apartment building into an immigrant shelter after facing community outrage.
Adams’ change of heart came at a St. Nicholas House Residents Association meeting packed with dozens of residents outraged by the city’s proposed development of a building on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Avenue that was once marketed as luxury housing. It happened when I suddenly attended.
The 35-story building was secretly planned to become a homeless shelter that could potentially house immigrants, but the plan was only revealed to the community when workers installed bed frames and This week, some neighbors saw workers carrying mattresses inside.
But in the face of pressure, Adams regressed Thursday night.
“I told my team, ‘Look at what’s going on here.’ If there’s a long-term need in the community, we’re not going to move people into a brand new building. That’s not going to happen. No,” Adams said at the meeting. to CBS New York.
“There are no immigrants or asylum seekers on that land,” Adams declared.
Instead, the site will be used to house long-term families experiencing homelessness in New York, a spokesperson for the city’s Department of Social Services said in a statement.
The building was originally advertised as a luxury living space where residents would pay market prices and enjoy apartments with indoor swimming pools and marble bathrooms, but it remained vacant for a decade after the developer was forced into foreclosure. It remained.
The building was then leased to a nonprofit organization working with the city’s Department of Social Services/Homeless Services and used as a shelter for immigrants and the Big Apple’s homeless population.
People who attended Thursday’s community meeting told Adams how they felt about potential plans to house immigrants.
“You’re the mayor. I don’t want to hear any excuses,” one Harlem resident shouted at Adams, CBS New York reported.
Some hope the complex will turn into affordable housing for nearby residents struggling to pay rent.
“We have a lack of affordable housing and we are being priced out of it by the community…The lack of respect is really scary,” Harlem resident Regina Smith said.
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“These apartments could be used for us to get into,” Leslie Johnson said.
The city’s Department of Social Services confirmed to CBS New York that the building will be renovated as transitional housing for families residing in New York long-term.
“Despite the developer’s original plans for market-rate condos, development stalled and the building remained vacant indefinitely and would not have been developed into luxury housing.” The site remains vacant. “Rather, it will serve as high-quality transitional housing for long-term New York City families with children experiencing homelessness,” the spokesperson said.
“We will continue to work with experienced nonprofit providers to help these families stabilize their lives and ultimately move into permanent housing. As always, we remain open in our lines of communication. We will hold the line, work closely with the community every step of the way, and work together to provide critical services to our neighbors in need.”
A housing schedule has not yet been established.
