Transcript: Mayor Mamdani, The Doe Fund Break Ground On New Supportive And Affordable Housing In Hunts Point
Zohran Mamdani on NYC Mayor's Office transcripts.
Passages
Good morning, everyone. It is a pleasure to be back in Hunts Point with so many friends and partners as we break ground on Casanova Residences. This is a 100 percent affordable housing development that will transform the lives of hundreds of New Yorkers here in the Bronx. And I wanna acknowledge the fact that we are joined by leaders both inside and outside of our administration today to announce this. We have Jennifer Mitchell, the president and CEO of The Doe Fund [and] John McDonald, the executive vice president of real estate at The Doe Fund. We have our deputy mayor for housing and planning, Leila Bozorg; our HPD deputy commissioner, Patrick Love; and our Bronx borough president, Vanessa Gibson. And I know that we will be joined by our Council member, Justin Sanchez, shortly. And I also want to acknowledge Bronx CB2 leadership that is here with us as well. And truly, when we acknowledge everyone by name, I also want to make it very clear that there are so many staff members at every level of every organization that we've spoken of that have made this possible. And I especially want to acknowledge the hard work of those at The Doe Fund for bringing this day to reality. Thank you so much. Now, for decade after decade, the presence of the Spofford Juvenile Detention Center loomed over this neighborhood. It was a complex synonymous with brutal conditions and physical abuse. And it was the place where Raymond Santana of the Exonerated Five wrote a poem entitled, “Time” in 1991. In it, he said, “I just want to go home.” Those words carried a meaning that went far beyond Spofford’s walls. The people of Hunts Point had long suffered from an intentional City government disinvestment that made it difficult to go home. It was neglect that manifested in broken streetlamps and windows boarded with plywood and sidewalks covered in rubble and a landscape littered with buildings gutted from fires that some landlords had set to collect the insurance payout. But the people of this neighborhood refused to let destruction become their norm. In the 35 years since Raymond Santana wrote those words, the people of Hunts Point have rebuilt. The livable, walkable streets where we stand today are proof of residents coming together to organize, to advocate [and] to demand something better. Each paved sidewalk, each tree planted, was won by the people of the Bronx in spite of that neglect. And I stand here today with a commitment to bring that era of disinvestment to an end. This groundbreaking here at Casanova Residences stands as proof of what this commitment will look like in the lives of Bronxites. Once completed, the building will be comprised of 96 affordable homes. Fifty-eight of these apartments will be designated as supportive housing for people with histories of homelessness and those living with serious health conditions. New Yorkers who have historically been denied the services they need to live lives of dignity. Here at Casanova, they will be able to address critical supports right outside their doorstep, thanks to The Doe Fund. Services including case management, financial literacy classes, paid work training, legal referrals and more. The other 38 homes will also be rent stabilized and truly affordable for working New Yorkers with one apartment designated for a live-in super. All residents will have access to free broadband internet across the building, as well as onsite laundry, a fitness center and community spaces. This project is just one example of our broader efforts to rewrite the relationship between City Hall and the people of the Bronx. Through our historic housing plan “Block by Block,” we are taking a targeted approach to the lasting housing inequities that disproportionately affect those in this borough, holding bad landlords accountable and supporting organized tenants along the way. And directly across the street from where we stand today, the former Spofford Center is being transformed from a site of trauma and abuse to a state-of-the-art mixed-use campus, known as The Peninsula, featuring 740 new affordable homes as well as open outdoor space. It will not only provide much-needed affordable housing, [but] it will also house New York City's first-ever city-run grocery store. There, food will be fresh, staples will be set at 30 percent below typical retail prices and workers will be paid fairly and treated with respect. This store will open before Casanova Residences is completed. So, when New Yorkers move in, they will be moving into a neighborhood equipped with the resources they need. From affordable groceries to outdoor space where they can play a game of chess or simply enjoy the breeze that just came in. As we break ground on Casanova Residences today, we are writing that new chapter for this corner. One where those who live here no longer experience neglect as a norm, but one where New Yorkers can instead go home to a decent, dignified space and where City government fulfills its fundamental responsibility to make that possible. Thank you very much. Now, I'm gonna pass it over to our emcee for the day, Deputy Mayor for Housing and Planning Leila Bozorg.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source I think, first and foremost, we know that the preeminent crisis in New York City is that of the housing crisis. And we know the homelessness crisis is one face of that. And what makes today so exciting is that we are building not only housing that currently homeless New Yorkers, as well as those at risk of homelessness, can live in, but that we're accompanying that housing with the kind of services that make it possible for those New Yorker to transform their own lives. And we are doing this alongside an allocation of more than $5 million in the recently adopted budget, where we are putting money towards a cross-agency task force that is looking to bring vacant supportive housing units online quicker so that we can ensure that we are meeting New Yorkers’ needs as quickly as we can. I'm gonna pass it over to our deputy mayor for housing and planning to speak to your broader question as well.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source I'm glad that you brought up the bus tour, because what we saw on that tour were a number of sites that had been announced years ago. I met the borough president right before I got on the bus and she mentioned to me that as part of a rezoning that she won when she was a Council member, 2018 Jerome Avenue, she secured one of these sites. It's eight years later and you can go to that site, and it looks very similar to what it was in 2018. And so, I think the point of this is to say that the issue of expediting construction is not specific to any one location; it is an issue we are seeing across the five boroughs. And we never want to be able to look at a site and say that we are contributing to the delay of the building on that site. So, I am so thankful for the leadership of our deputy mayor in identifying any which way — both within city government, but also in terms of state law — that we can be expediting this, because that's a big reason why we lent our voice to the fight for SEQRA reform, because we had identified SEQRA reform as being one of the factors that was delaying construction times up to two years. And that is simply not acceptable in a city where we haven't built enough housing per demand since 1961. I'm gonna pass it to our deputy mayor for additional details.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source So, I'll answer the first question and also bring up the deputy mayor for the specifics on the property that you mentioned. I will first just say that it is critically important that we build more housing across New York City. And the reason for that is the absence of that housing construction has been one of the factors that has pushed so many New Yorkers out of the city. As you alluded to in your question, the cost-of-living crisis, it affects every single New Yorker. The effect of it, however, is not born evenly. We've seen Black New Yorkers disproportionately hit by the impact of this crisis. We've seen 200,000 Black New Yorkers be pushed out of this city in the last few decades alone. And we've also seen that reflected even in the population of Black children and teenagers; from 2010 to 2019, our city's population went down by nearly 20 percent. And so, one of the top priorities that we have as a city is how do we build housing that can ensure that Black history isn't just something that we celebrate in New York City, but it's something that we can also ensure can keep being written in New York City. Because one of the times that I saw a pastor in Harlem was when I met him on his way to the airport, I asked him where he was going and he told me he was going to meet a parishioner of his in South Carolina. Because now that's where she can afford to live. And I think that building more housing, especially whether it be in Manhattan, in the Bronx, in every single one of five boroughs, in Harlem. It is critical to ensuring that we can meet that, but I'll pass it over to the deputy mayor on any specifics.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source And just to your second question, Kelly. Yes, we have extended the deadline to September 18. And the point of this period of time is precisely so that New Yorkers — the 17,000 homeowners who received the “you may be subject to” letters — have all the information they need and also have the time to be able to inquire with any questions, as well as appeal any assessment of their property as being one that would receive the surcharge. Again, this is a surcharge for secondary homes of non-resident New Yorkers that are worth more than $5 million. We've also made the decision to hire 24 additional civil servants across multiple city agencies precisely to be engaging with New Yorker on this question. Again, if a New Yorker does not appeal this by September 18, they still have until March to appeal this to the Tax Commission before this tax is actually levied.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source I think first and foremost that I understand the concerns New Yorkers have, especially when it comes to a new tax, and as we know that new taxes typically present more questions than they do answers. Now when it comes to the property tax role and the “you may be subject to” letters, I do also want to state that there has been both a willful and an unintentional conflation of both the property-tax role and these letters. The property tax roll, as you know is something that the city releases twice a year annually and has been doing so for decades, frankly, if not longer. This is a tax role that was released that had more than 900,000 homes on it. And we know that the pied-� -terre surcharge is for secondary homes of non-resident New Yorkers. The city sent a letter to 17,000 homeowners; that is a fraction of the number of homeowners in New York City and a fraction of the number of people who call the city home — an 8.5 million. And in that letter, it stated that this is the process by which you can engage with the city to ensure that if you do not believe this to be an accurate assessment of your property, you have the time to appeal this assessment. And so, whether New Yorkers are gonna call 311 or they're gonna call the Department of Finance directly, or also now if they want to go directly to a business center in person, we want to make sure that they have all the resources necessary to that.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source I continue to believe that the pied-� -terre surcharge will raise $500 million on an annual basis. And the importance of this tax is that it is one that will ensure that our streets are cleaner, that our city is safer, that our schools are more supported. And what we are also doing is embarking on something new in New York City where we are ensuring that we are assessing the primary residents of homeowners in homes that are worth more than $5 million. And we've sent out 17,000 letters. And now from that, we’re receiving engagement from New Yorkers to assess what the final number is. The thing we did not want to do was levy this charge without giving New Yorkers a period of time where they could engage with the city. And now that's this period of engagement.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source I think first and foremost, so long as there is crime in the Bronx and there is crime in New York City, it means that there is work for us to do. And we can acknowledge and appreciate the incredible work of the men and women of the NYPD in reducing crime and also know that there's still so much more work to be done. And I will tell you, as someone who went to see Kai's body with his family at that viewing, I can never look at the heartbreak that that family is going through and say that the work that we have done is enough. There is always more work to be done and there always will be more work to be down until every 12-year-old can ride a bike to a bodega and ensure that they're just enjoying summer as every New Yorker has the right to. You know, we are looking at every different avenue that we have to invest in the Bronx. And when we're thinking about these kinds of moments where we're investing in the housing here in the Bronx, but also in investing in youth programming across the Bronx and across the city. And that continues to be a conversation that we have internally as we celebrate the investments of SYEP. Just a few days ago, I was there at the Shakespeare Steps with a number of young Bronxites who were really feeling a renewed sense of purpose thanks to this project that they were a part of because of the leadership of City Arts. And I think that's also what the key holds is, how do we ensure we have more for young people to do and not just lectures to them of what they shouldn't do.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source You know, I think, Janno and I will always have a difference of opinion and that's fine, because here in New York City we learn how to live with each other, no matter how many differences of opinion we have. And the place of agreement that we have is how to make the slowest buses in America fast, how to them worth the time that New Yorkers pour into them when millions of New Yorker get on buses that sometimes crawl as slow as five miles an hour. Now when I was in high school, I went to high school here in the Bronx at Bronx Science, and to get there, I would get on the Bx10. And that bus went so slow that I knew if I could see it two stops away, I would be able to run and catch up. And that's not a good thing for a city when buses are that slow. Now, when it comes to making buses free, it is something that I continue to believe is important, because what we are talking about is a cost-of-living crisis in this city where one in five New Yorkers struggle to afford the fare at $3. And we know that that is only going to be exacerbated the longer this cost of live crisis goes and we never want a New Yorker to be priced out of that. I am thankful of the work alongside with the Council, and we have our Council Member Justin Sanchez here, looking to ensure that we're increasing the eligibility for Fair Fares in the interim, which I also think is an important program. To your first question, I will follow up on the reporting around summer streets. I'm not yet aware of that article from Streetsblog. However, what I would say is, we want to ensure that New Yorkers are safe in all of these moments and we also want to ensure that New Yorkers can enjoy themselves and celebrate. And that was also one of the real focuses that we had over the course of this summer, and we most recently saw it during the World Cup. But thank you for highlighting the article and I'll be sure to follow up on it.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source So, the assessment of 17,000 properties potentially being levied with this surcharge, that is the maximum number of properties. And now the process is on engaging with New Yorkers to see whether those who filed their property in a trust or in an LLC are in fact also primary residence holders of that same property. We have been engaging with a number of New Yorkers — we can have the team follow up with you with the exact number — already, just in the time since that first letter was sent. And that engagement will continue through September 18 with the Department of Finance, and again, if a New Yorker does not engage after that point, they can still appeal to the Tax Commission until March. And right now, what we are doing is investing in civil servants across the Department of Finance as well as OATH. We know that a lot of New Yorkers have long associated those agencies with any questions that they have with their property taxes. And so, what we've done is whether they're calling 311, whether they are calling the Department of Finance directly, or whether they are going in person into a business center, that they are all able now to ensure that they can help New Yorkers navigate those conversations. And we're thankful for the work of those civil servants. ###
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source
Every passage above is taken from this recording: NYC Mayor's Office transcripts, Transcript: Mayor Mamdani, The Doe Fund Break Ground On New Supportive And Affordable Housing In Hunts Point.