NYC Council leaders call for moratorium on new homeless shelters to boost affordable housing
Mayor Adams' administration should put a stop to all new construction of homeless shelters in the five boroughs, according to two City Council leaders.
In a Friday letter to Adams' budget director, Jacques Jiha, Council Finance Committee Chairman Justin Brannan and Council Oversight Committee Chairwoman Gale Brewer wrote that such a moratorium is necessary to turn the tide on a concerning trend they've noticed whereby real estate developers are opting to build shelters instead of affordable housing.
'Simply put, developers have found that building homeless shelters is a more lucrative option than building affordable housing,' Brannan and Brewer wrote in the letter, a copy of which was reviewed by the Daily News.
The two lawmakers argued a shelter construction moratorium should be in place at least until the conclusion of a set of ongoing investigations touching on the Adams administration's real estate and shelter practices, including a Manhattan DA probe scrutinizing the Department of Citywide Administrative Services' commercial leasing program.
Spokespeople for the mayor's office didn't immediately return requests for comment on the moratorium demand.
As an example of the issue at hand, Brannan, who represents a section of southern Brooklyn that includes Coney Island, pointed to an affordable housing project in Marine Park that was recently switched into a shelter development.
'Endlessly building new shelters will not fix this,' he told The News of the city's housing crisis, which has resulted in skyrocketing rents and a short supply of affordable apartments.
Brannan and Brewer also argued in their letter that Adams' administration should increase transparency on how much the city pays major real estate firms like Bayrock in rent for operating shelters on their sites. Brannan, who's running for city comptroller in this year's local elections, said that's particularly important at a time that Adams' administration is reeling from a web of scandals, including the mayor's own federal corruption indictment.
'With an administration awash in corruption, taxpayers deserve to better understand what exactly is happening here,' Brannan said.
Ultimately, Brannan and Brewer wrote they are encouraged by the Adams administration's focus on developing more housing by, among other things, working with the Council to pass 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.'
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