Mayor Adams’ administration ought to put a cease to all new building of homeless shelters within the 5 boroughs, in accordance with two Metropolis Council leaders.
In a Friday letter to Adams’ funds director, Jacques Jiha, Council Finance Committee Chairman Justin Brannan and Council Oversight Committee Chairwoman Gale Brewer wrote that such a moratorium is important to show the tide on a regarding development they’ve observed whereby actual property builders are opting to construct shelters as a substitute of inexpensive housing.
The 2 lawmakers argued a shelter building moratorium must be in place a minimum of till the conclusion of a set of ongoing investigations relating the Adams administration’s actual property and shelter practices, together with a Manhattan DA probe scrutinizing the Division of Citywide Administrative Companies’ industrial leasing program.
Spokespeople for the mayor’s workplace didn’t instantly return requests for touch upon the moratorium demand.
For instance of the difficulty at hand, Brannan, who represents a piece of southern Brooklyn that features Coney Island, pointed to an inexpensive housing undertaking in Marine Park that was lately switched right into a shelter improvement.
Samaritan Village Forbell homeless shelter in Brooklyn. (Shawn Inglima/New York Day by day Information)
Brannan and Brewer additionally argued of their letter that Adams’ administration ought to improve transparency on how a lot the town pays main actual property corporations like Bayrock in hire for working shelters on their websites. Brannan, who’s working for metropolis comptroller on this yr’s native elections, stated that’s notably vital at a time that Adams’ administration is reeling from an online of scandals, together with the mayor’s personal federal corruption indictment.
“With an administration awash in corruption, taxpayers deserve to better understand what exactly is happening here,” Brannan stated.
Finally, Brannan and Brewer wrote they’re inspired by the Adams administration’s deal with creating extra housing by, amongst different issues, working with the Council to move the “City of Yes” rezoning plan.
“However,” they added, “we want to express our concern that the way this administration handles deals with developers of affordable housing vs. of homeless shelters is undermining the good work we have done together.”
