Hundreds of Queens residents say the state-owned campus of an old psychiatric hospital presents a once-in-a-lifetime chance to build 3,000 new affordable homes — if New York officials allow it.
The residents are organizing with a coalition of church and nonprofit groups known as Queens Power to demand affordable housing on the grounds of Creedmoor Psychiatric Center, a swath of state-owned land best known for the towering hospital visible from the Grand Central Parkway. They rallied for the proposal near the Creedmoor campus on Sunday.
Queens Power Co-Chair Ben Thomases, who leads the nonprofit Queens Community House, said the state-owned land provides the perfect opportunity to build around 3,000 new income-restricted apartments, along with homes available to purchase, during a deepening housing crisis.
“Where are you gonna find something like that in Queens or anywhere in the five boroughs?” Thomases said. “We need 100% real affordability because this is a housing emergency and in an emergency, we need the state to use every tool at its disposal to respond.”
So far, Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York’s quasi-governmental agency, Empire State Development, have resisted the 100% affordable housing idea, according to Queens Power members. State officials will hold two public forums on the project next month as part of a planning process on what to do with the 55 acres south of the main hospital.
The call for new affordable housing comes as rents continue to rise in Queens, and throughout New York City. Median rents reached $2,700 in Queens in April, the highest number on record, according to prices analyzed by the real estate listings firm StreetEasy. The site is located in Queens Community District 13, where nearly half of low-income tenants spent at least 50% of their earnings on rent last year, an arrangement that leaves them “severely rent-burdened“ under federal guidelines, data from the Furman Center shows.
Empire State Development did not comment on…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply