New York City Mayor Eric Adams has reversed a plan to give an abandoned luxury Harlem condominium complex to migrants after significant community outcry.
“Adams’ change of heart came during a surprise appearance at a St. Nicholas House Resident Association meeting packed with dozens of residents furious over the city’s plan for a building development on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd once marketed as upscale housing,” reported the New York Post.
“The 35-story building was quietly slated to become a homeless shelter that could potentially house migrants — a plan that was only revealed to the community this week when some neighborhood residents saw workers bringing bed frames and mattresses inside,” it added.
Adams finally turned his plan around last Thursday night after public pressure.
“I told the team, ‘Find out what’s going on here. We’re not moving folks into a brand new building when you have long-term needs in a community. That’s not gonna happen,’” Adams said. “You will not have migrants and asylum seekers in that property.”
The site will instead house New York families dealing with homelessness.
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“Despite the developer’s initial plans for market rate condominiums, development had been stalled and this building left indefinitely empty– it would not have advanced as luxury housing. Instead of sitting vacant, this site will serve as high-quality transitional housing for long-term New York City families with children experiencing homelessness,” a spokesperson for the NYC Department of Social Services confirmed to CBS New York.
“We will be working with an experienced not-for-profit provider to help these families stabilize their lives and ultimately move into permanent housing. As we have always done, we will continue to maintain open lines of communication and work closely with the community every step of the way to ensure that we are collaboratively working to provide critical services for our neighbors in need.”
The development, originally billed as a luxury complex, has sat vacant for decades.
“You are the mayor. We do not want to hear excuses,” one Harlem resident shouted at Adams.
“We have a dearth of affordable housing we’re being priced out of the community … The lack of respect is absolutely appalling,” Harlem resident Regina Smith said.
“These apartments could be used for us to go into,” Leslie Johnson said.
Paul Roland Bois directed the award-winning feature film, EXEMPLUM, which can be viewed for FREE on YouTube or Tubi. “Better than Killers of the Flower Moon,” wrote Mark Judge. “You haven’t seen a story like this before,” wrote Christian Toto. A high-quality, ad-free stream can also be purchased on Google Play or Vimeo on Demand. Follow him on Twitter @prolandfilms or Instagram @prolandfilms.
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