I do know West Harlem the best way most individuals by no means need to know a neighborhood. From the bottom up. Actually. I used to be homeless beginning at age ten. I spent years sleeping on park benches, within the streets, and in shelters. I raised my son contained in the household shelter system, studying to outlive in a metropolis that too typically treats its most susceptible individuals as issues to be warehoused somewhat than people to be housed. Harlem was at all times the place I discovered myself, and the place I ultimately discovered my footing.
In the present day I’m a commissioner on the New York Metropolis Constitution Revision Fee. Final 12 months, my work on the earlier Constitution Revision Fee helped strengthen the town’s capacity to extend housing manufacturing. I helped get the Metropolis of Sure for Housing initiative permitted by the Metropolis Council and I’m at the moment working to construct housing for these in want. Moderately than spend time speaking in regards to the issues, I’m utilizing my lived expertise to offer options. In Harlem, a neighborhood that has seen a proliferation of shelters over housing, I need to assist present a greater reply to the housing and homelessness disaster.
That’s the reason I’m urging the Metropolis Council to vote sure on Hill Prime Flats.
The challenge at 1727 Amsterdam Avenue, between 145th and 146th Streets, would carry roughly 200 completely inexpensive, rent-stabilized flats to a website at the moment owned by NYC Well being + Hospitals. Of these, 120 can be supportive housing items with on-site companies, case administration, and 24/7 staffing. The remaining 80 would undergo HPD’s Housing Join lottery, with a choice for Neighborhood Board 9 residents. This nine-story constructing will give each single tenant a lease and a key to their very own entrance door. This isn’t one other shelter. That is everlasting housing for the individuals who want it most.
I’ve heard the opposition and I perceive the frustration. Harlem has been carrying greater than its share of the town’s shelter burden for years. The neighborhood is oversaturated with shelters. However shelters don’t finish homelessness. They handle it. And if we hold blocking everlasting housing like this, shelters will proceed to broaden their footprint in Harlem. Each time we are saying no to housing, we’re saying sure to extra shelters.
Earlier this winter, greater than 20 individuals have been discovered useless on our streets within the freezing chilly. Tonight, there are 85,000 individuals sleeping in New York Metropolis’s shelter system. Thirty-one thousand of them are youngsters. Each time a challenge like this fails, these numbers don’t stay flat. They develop. Our neighborhood has misplaced almost 11,000 Black residents over the past decade, pushed out by the price of residing whereas the shelter beds multiply. Everlasting, inexpensive housing isn’t driving individuals out of Harlem. It’s the solely factor that may hold them right here.
The Bowery Residents’ Committee has been doing this work for 50 years. They don’t seem to be coming into Harlem to warehouse individuals. They’re coming to construct actual properties with kitchens and loos and companies that assist tenants keep housed. They’ve dedicated to connecting CB9 residents to jobs within the constructing. The Emma L. Bowen Neighborhood Service Middle, a significant useful resource on this neighborhood, could have its personal devoted area and a long-term lease within the new constructing. It isn’t being pushed out. It’s being protected. This challenge has the assist of Borough President Mark Levine, Council Member Shaun Abreu, State Senator Cordell Cleare, and Meeting Member Al Taylor. It has acquired $10 million from the state and over 1,000,000 extra from the Metropolis Council and the borough president. That type of assist and monetary dedication doesn’t present up for initiatives that aren’t good for the neighborhood.
The individuals who will reside at Hill Prime Flats are actual individuals. They’re sufferers going out and in of NYC Well being + Hospitals who want a secure residence. They’re seniors on mounted incomes and dealing households. And a few of them are individuals who have been homeless like I used to be. They only want a door they will shut, a kitchen they will prepare dinner in, and a lease with their title on it. These individuals don’t have the posh to attend for an additional debate. They want a dignified place to name residence now.
In case you consider they deserve one, select housing over shelters. The Metropolis Council votes quickly.
Vote sure on Hill Prime Flats.
Shams DaBaron, often called Da Homeless Hero and Da Housing Hero, is a commissioner on the New York Metropolis Constitution Revision Fee, and the founding father of LionFox Improvement
