(The Center Square) — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has revived a controversial housing program in the Bronx for ex-cons that was rejected by his predecessor over neighborhood safety concerns.
Mamdani announced Monday that his administration is moving ahead with the Just Home housing project, which calls for building 83 apartments for formerly incarcerated New Yorkers with “complex medical needs” on the campus of New York City Health + Hospitals/Jacobi in the Morris Park section of the Bronx neighborhood.
The former Queens assemblyman and democratic socialist said his decision to move ahead with the project is a key plank of his “social justice” agenda and vision for New York City as a place “where every one of our neighbors, even those who have made mistakes in their past, is entitled to dignity and safety and to a home they can call their own.”
“We are not simply creating 83 new apartments and supporting those who are struggling,” he said in remarks Monday. “We are advancing the cause of justice.”
The project was approved by the New York City Council in September, over the objections of then-Mayor Eric Adams, but has been on hold amid wrangling over its implementation.
Adams, a Democrat who decided not to seek another term as mayor, was initially in favor of the project but pulled his support after then-City Councilwoman Kristy Marmorato raised safety concerns about the development. Adams had proposed other sites for housing for ex-convicts. He argued the council lacked the authority to approve the land-use changes needed for the project.
“The Bronx has been over-saturated with these alternatives, sort of housing people with drug abuse, people with mental health. The Bronx has done its share,” Adams said in September. “That will still be a shelter, but it won’t be for people leaving Rikers and going into that community.”
But supporters of the project, which will be run by the private nonprofit Fortune Society, say the plan includes safeguards and that prospective tenants who pose a “risk of violence” will not be accepted.
Anyone who applies for housing must have had their criminal cases adjudicated by the court and released to the community before they will be considered, officials said.
“Advancing Just Home reaffirms this administration’s commitment to the principle that decent, quality housing is a basic human right, regardless of past history,” Dina Levy, commissioner of the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development, said in a statement. “Moreover, creating stable and affordable homes for individuals who are suffering through severe illness as they transition back into the community is both fiscally responsible and morally imperative.”
Fortune CEO and president Stanley Richards said the project “underscores our collective commitment to advancing health equity and creating positive, transformative change for our city.”
“When it opens, this innovative development will address a significant concern by providing supportive, evidence-based solutions for New Yorkers with complex medical needs who would otherwise be homeless,” he said in a statement.
