After three years of playing hardball, City Councilwoman Lauire Cumbo (D-Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Prospect heights, Crown Heights) announced this week a deal to keep some 600 apartments affordable at a former medical facility in Crown Heights.
Joining Cumbo at the former Brooklyn Jewish Hospital, 545 Prospect Place, to announce the deal with the Alma Realty company were Assemblyman Walter Mosley, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, Public Advocate Letitia James, and Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Maria Torres-Springer.
“Today marks a three-year, hard-fought victory,” said Cumbo. “Over the last three years, I have had the experience and the honor and the privilege to work with the many tenants of the Brooklyn Jewish Hospital complex to make sure that we secure this affordable housing for generations to come.”
According to the KCP story on the issue three years ago, Alma was able to skirt rent control laws when they bought the property due to a technical variance, which allowed them to notify tenants their rent would move to market rate. However, Cumbo and her colleague lawmakers were able to pushback against Alama because they need regulatory approvals regarding their Astoria Cove site in Queens, which they are now marketing to sell for $350 million.
The deal Cumbo carved out will secure rent-stabilized leases for current and future tenants of the Brooklyn Jewish Hospital complex for the next 30 years. Affordability bands will range between 114% and 120% of Area Median Income. Tenants who already live in the buildings will be grandfathered in, and these affordability bans will stay in place as new tenants move in.
“I am thrilled that after years of work, we are finally seeing real benefits for the people who live in Brooklyn Jewish Housing Complex,” said Mosley. “Finding affordable housing is vital for people in Brooklyn, especially with this city facing the worst housing crisis since World War II. I am thankful that HPD and Alma Realty were able to come to an agreement that benefits their tenants for generations to come.”
Alex Lotero, a tenant in the building who works for the Student Success Network, said she was thrilled with the deal.
“Home can be a source of anxiety, and it was definitely a source of anxiety when the lease that I signed that said it was rent-regulated all of a sudden wasn’t,” said Lotero. “So I just want to thank every tenant who devoted time, energy and talent. We devoted hours every week to working on this alongside some of the staff you see here.”
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said that as monumental as the deal is, it only represents a single step in the continuing fight to counteract the forces of gentrification in vulnerable neighborhoods like Crown Heights.
“This is a fight that’s resonating throughout the entire borough,” said Adams. “Those of us who have won, now let’s use that excitement and energy so that others can join us and say that they, too, won. A home is not four walls where people stay; it’s the precursor to the American dream, and too many people are living a nightmarish reality that any day, they could be displaced.”
