The fate of a Bronx housing plan is uncertain as Mayor Adams retracts initial backing
The proposed development at the Bronx Hospital Campus, which includes 83 units of housing, has been a contentious issue since August 2022. The project, which features 58 units of supportive housing for people leaving Rikers Island with severe medical problems, has faced intense criticism from residents of the surrounding Morris Park neighborhood.
The city's Health and Hospitals Corporation approved the plan in January 2024, but the project has since lost a key ally, Mayor Eric Adams. Adams, who initially defended the plan, stating that the men would be best served 'in a setting where they can get the wraparound services they need so they don't become reoffenders,' has now expressed opposition to the proposal.
The proposal's supporters, including Fortune Society President and CEO Stanley Richards, emphasize that the project would bring safe, supportive, and permanent housing to formerly incarcerated persons with complex medical needs. Richards issued a written statement urging lawmakers to support the housing proposal.
If the City Council approves the plan, it could counter a long-held narrative that it rejects housing proposals that individual members oppose. However, the Bronx Republican Women's Club is mobilizing to oppose the plan, offering bus rides to City Hall for a protest on Thursday morning. The flier circulated by the club promotes an alternative plan for housing reserved for 'senior citizens, staff, and veterans.'
The current discussion status of the housing project for formerly incarcerated individuals involves plans by Osborne Association to manage the support services for the 58 housing units designated for these residents. Councilmember Sandy Nurse, a Brooklyn Democrat, has expressed support for the housing proposal for formerly incarcerated people.
Randy Mastro, First Deputy Mayor, has recently worked to block or alter the plan. An Adams-appointed commission is attempting to neuter the custom through proposed changes to the city's governing charter. If the Council votes in favor of the proposal, it would break a long-standing Council tradition known as 'member deference.'
The proposal also includes another 24 units of affordable housing for people earning no more than $68,000 a year, and an apartment for a superintendent. A 2022 analysis by the Corporation for Supportive Housing found that about 2,500 people who are arrested and sent to Rikers each year are homeless with mental illness and would benefit from supportive housing.
Lori Peterson, a Morris Park Community Association board member, expressed concerns about the safety of living near people recently released from jail. The final fate of the project is still unclear, but the proposal to build specialized housing for formerly incarcerated people is currently on the verge of a City Council vote.
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