Simply Residence, a supportive housing mission for individuals exiting incarceration with main medical wants, was accepted by Metropolis Council on Thursday after years of contentious debate — and after dropping the help of Mayor Eric Adams, who first touted the mission in 2022.
The Sept. 25 vote additionally broke from the custom of member deference, whereby members normally vote in accordance with the native consultant on land use selections. On this case, Council Member Kristy Marmorato lengthy opposed Simply Residence on behalf of her Morris Park constituents, who made their opposition loud and clear, however was finally overruled.
The council accepted a 99-year sublease to the nonprofit Fortune Society, which is able to function the event at a vacant constructing on the Jacobi Hospital campus.
Simply Residence will embody 82 residences, 58 of which will likely be supportive models with on-site companies and medical care, and the remainder will likely be common reasonably priced models.
NYC Well being + Hospitals accepted the mission in 2024 however despatched written testimony to the Sept. 18 listening to saying town wished to maneuver Simply Residence to a special location and postpone the listening to and upcoming vote.
Finally, the complete council held the Sept. 25 vote over the direct objections of First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro, on the mayor’s behalf.
In a press release, Marmorato blasted the vote as “embarrassing and hypocritical.”
“This was not about housing,” she mentioned. “The administration already committed to relocating this project and expanding affordable housing at Jacobi. This was about power, ego, and politics. And how shameful that personal feelings were allowed to outweigh the voices of the people we represent,” she mentioned.
Stanley Richards, president and CEO of The Fortune Society, celebrated the decision.
“The fact is that providing formerly incarcerated people with supportive housing does not make our neighborhoods less safe — on the contrary, it makes us all safer,” mentioned Richards in a press release.
“Just Home will prevent physically vulnerable individuals from entering our overburdened shelters, winding up on the streets, or languishing on Rikers Island. As we say at Fortune, everyone deserves a home, and today, the City Council has upheld and affirmed that belief.”
A Jacobi campus police officer walks up the ramp at 1900 Seminole Ave. on Friday, Feb. 2, 2024, the location of the proposed Simply Residence mission.Picture Camille Botello
The Simply Residence Vote survives
Earlier than the vote, Marmorato pleaded for member deference, saying she ought to have the democratic proper to characterize her constituents’ opposition to Simply Residence.
She additionally blamed the council for letting the mission stay in limbo.
“If the council cared so much about housing, this would not have sat for over a year,” she mentioned.
However Council Speaker Adrienne Adams made it clear the Simply Residence vote would proceed as scheduled and slammed the mayor for his “desperate, last-ditch attempt” to cease it.
In a Sept. 24 letter to the council, First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro had mentioned a Simply Residence vote shouldn’t be held as a result of the situation initially utilized for (Jacobi) was not being thought of.
A footnote to Mastro’s letter mentioned town wished to web site Simply Residence at one in every of two doable buildings close to Broadway Junction in Brooklyn. The vacant buildings are city-owned properties in Council Member Sandy Nurse’s district, and Mastro mentioned he was “confident of greater local elected and community buy-in” at these websites.
Mastro mentioned that “without the mayor’s approval, the project cannot proceed [at Jacobi] as currently contemplated.”
Nevertheless, Speaker Adams mentioned the letter was an “irrelevant” try and subvert the council’s energy.
On the assembly, a number of members spoke in help of Simply Residence.
Nurse, who mentioned she not too long ago minimize the ribbon on an analogous mission in her district, mentioned she hoped Marmorato would construct a relationship with The Fortune Society and Simply Residence residents, who’re “in most cases, dying” and “need our sympathy and care.”
She additionally mentioned she devoted her approval vote to Mastro, drawing snickers from the members.
Bronx Council Member Pierina Sanchez mentioned Simply Residence will present “stable, dignified housing” for a “population that too often is pushed to the margins with nowhere safe to go.”
She additionally mentioned some neighborhoods have “resisted doing their fair share” of housing, particularly for weak communities.
East Bronx District 13 has traditionally lagged behind in reasonably priced housing development, in response to a report by the New York Housing Convention
District 13 ranked 38 out of 51 districts for reasonably priced housing creation, having produced simply 484 models between 2014 and 2024. In contrast, Oswald Feliz’s Bronx district produced over 7,700 in that timeframe, and 5 Bronx districts, largely within the South Bronx, ranked within the prime ten.
However as Simply Residence garnered help from these wanting to extend reasonably priced housing in a district that has lagged, it additionally confronted fierce opposition from Morris Park residents, who testified to security considerations and mentioned housing for different weak populations, comparable to veterans and seniors, ought to take precedence over the previously incarcerated.
Years in the past, the talk got here to a chaotic head in an October 2022 Neighborhood Board 11 listening to, throughout which Simply Residence supporters have been shouted down, insulted and threatened.
Whereas the temperature regularly cooled, Marmorato’s election to District 13 was largely spurred by her opposition to Simply Residence and different improvement initiatives.
Most not too long ago, she has steadfastly opposed the proposed Bally’s casino-hotel complicated, which is able to present one other sort of take a look at of member deference when the Neighborhood Advisory Committee votes on Sept. 30. As with Simply Residence, different Bronx elected officers have expressed help for the event, over Marmorato’s objections.
In the meantime, she indicated that the Simply Residence vote places her at odds with colleagues over the very nature of their position.
“Public service is supposed to mean putting communities first. Instead, this vote showed self-interest over service, hypocrisy over honesty, and politics over democracy,” Marmorato’s assertion mentioned. “I will continue to fight for District 13, no matter how many times this Council fails to honor its own stated principles.”
