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Uptown Residents Say Mayor's Housing Plan 'Not Affordable' for Community

By Carolina Pichardo | February 10, 2016 2:04pm
 Hundreds of Washington Heights and Inwood residents met Monday night to organize and create alternative options to the mayor’s controversial housing plan.
Uptown Residents Say Mayor's Rezoning Plan 'Not Affordable'
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FORT GEORGE — Hundreds of Washington Heights and Inwood residents met Monday night to begin to craft alternatives to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s controversial neighborhood rezoning plan — saying the proposal's definition of affordability does not line up with the community's.

The proposal would rezone many neighborhoods across the city as part of the mayor's plan to create and preserve 200,000 units of affordable housing over the next 10 years. But the plan has been rejected by nearly every community board citywide, and has residents concerned it will encourage gentrification and price them out of their homes.

READ MORE: Here's What You Need to Know About the Mayor's Citywide Rezoning Plan

Locals gathered the night before the City Council, which has the final say over the rezoning plan, held a hearing on a key aspect of the plan, called Mandatory Inclusionary Housing. It would require affordable housing in all developments within certain neighborhood, as well as some citywide projects.

The least expensive apartments would be affordable to New Yorkers who make an annual salary that's 60 percent of the area median income (AMI), which is roughly $46,620 a year for a family of three. 

"Those affordable units are not affordable for members of our community," Ava Farkas of the Metropolitan Council on Housing, an advocacy group, said during her organization's presentation at the meeting. "Where would people earning $37,000 [the average median income in Washington Heights] or under be able to live in this plan?"  

READ MORE: What is AMI?

The meeting, held at the Isabella Geriatric Center at 515 Audubon Ave., was hosted by a coalition of tenant, senior and faith-based groups, as well as other local nonprofit organizations from Washington Heights, Inwood and The Bronx, organizers said.

Members of the Metropolitan Council on Housing gave a presentation that explained the zoning plan, and how it would apply to Washington Heights and Inwood, to the mostly Spanish-speaking residents who packed the auditorium.

After the presentations residents were split into groups, in which many brainstormed their own options and ideas for the mayor’s plan based on their income levels.

Ricardo Ureña, who said he has two children to raise, said he’s concerned with how residents are being forced out of the community.

“We can’t go against the development,” Ureña said in Spanish, “but it has to represent and benefit us as well.”

For others, their concern was with affordability and how the redevelopment would exclude residents already working and living in the neighborhood.

“How can we afford to pay rent when we’re on Social Security?” Washington Heights resident Eddie Castillo asked the audience. “We can’t accept the plan, because we feel like they’re pushing us out of our neighborhood.”

Maya Bhardwaj, of Faith in New York, said that was sentiment she's heard from members of her organization.  

“We found that there was lack of engagement with normal people who live in this community," she said.

Bhardwaj said that although recent meetings — organized by the Department of City Planning, Economic Development Corporation and Department of Housing Preservation and Development — have been well-attended, "people are coming out of them feeling like a lot of it is rhetoric." 

That's why the groups held Monday's meeting and will continue to host workshops throughout the city, she said. 

“I think we have a tough fight — but it’s very clear what the community wants," she said. "The community wants to be engaged and wants their voices to be heard. It’s not that there’s a lack of desire."

Residents lined up shortly after the meeting to find out more about future meetings and rallies, and some even volunteered to attend hearings scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday morning at the City Council Chambers.

"Sign me up," Washington Heights resident Livia Fernandez said in Spanish.

The City Council is expected to vote on the plan in March.