Push for affordable housing at Creedmoor begins
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A group of locals are rallying for 100 percent affordable housing at Queens’ Creedmoor site, which is undergoing redevelopment. Eagle photo by Ryan Schwach
By Ryan Schwach
As the state continues to draw up a plan for what to do with more than 50-acres of land at the mostly-abandoned Creedmoor Psychiatric Facility in Queens, and a group of locals are calling for the future development to include 100 percent affordable housing.
The group, called Queens Power, is made up mostly of religious leaders from Queens who are calling for increased affordable housing in the 54-acres of development being pursued by Empire State Development and Queens Borough President Donovan Richards.
The clergy people say that many of their parishioners are leaving the city and Queens due to a high cost of living and see the Creedmoor development as an opportunity to reverse that trend. However, their position splits from a number of locals in the area, who have come out against plans to bring affordable housing to the suburban area even before such plans have been formally floated.
“It started as soon as we saw our congregants starting to leave the city,” said Father Patrick Longalong, the pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Queens Village, which is about one and a half miles from Creedmoor. “Every summer, I get members of my parish asking me to bless their cars because they packed all their stuff and they are moving down to the Carolinas or another state.”
“People cannot afford to live here,” he added.
The trend is not just being seen at Longalong’s parish, it's also the case a few miles south in Rosedale for Father Daniel Kingsley, the pastor of St. Clare Church.
“St. Clare has a parochial school, and this year we've heard from some parents that they're moving away,” Kingsley told the Eagle. “They're moving to either down south or Nassau, Suffolk – the five boroughs simply are not affordable for them anymore.”
“Parishioners told me that there's children, who worked for what was previously considered to be decent jobs, who are moving back with their parents because they simply can't make ends meet,” he added.
For the advocates, an increase in affordable housing is the key to keeping New Yorkers in the five boroughs for generations.
“The push for Queens Power ultimately is that people who grew up in Queens, live in Queens,” said Kingsley. “We should be able to afford to continue living and working in Queens because what was possible for one generation should also be possible for the next.”
In recent years, particularly since the pandemic, New York’s population has declined by nearly 5.3 percent according to Census Bureau data, which is concurrent with rising rents in areas like Queens.
“We live in New York City, we're growing,” said Longalong. “So, it's inevitable for us to have all this density – the problem here is that the children of our own longtime residents of New York are the ones leaving because they can’t afford to stay here.”
However, the word “density” has become something of a buzzword surrounding the Creedmoor development, with a coalition of local community leaders voicing their opposition to high density housing, a position contradicted not only by Queens Power, but also by the borough president.
“We definitely do not want anything that produces high volume…If there is housing it has to be low density,” Rocky Hill Civic Association President Suzanne Peritz told the Eagle in February. “We do not want all the traffic.”
Those locals are worried that high-density housing – anything above four stories, specifically – would be out of character with the neighborhood and would add unnecessary and unwanted stress on the community’s roads, schools and power grid.
“The infrastructure… really need[s] to be upgraded if they're going to have multi-story buildings in this facility,” Michael Mallia, a Community Board 13 member and who lives near Creedmoor told the Eagle. “If you add 1,400 residents, it's going to be a nightmare.”
Queens Power’s members do not see it quite the same way.
“The people are upset that we are pushing so that our children and our own grandchildren will be able to afford to live in New York City,” said Longalong. “Are they afraid of that type of density?”
Both Longalong and Kinglsey, like many of the other clergy people in Queens Power, are people of color, and say that race plays a role in the conversation about what people do and don’t want to see built at Creedmoor.
“We have images where we assume the worst of the working poor,” said Kingsley. “I think unfortunately, we play up to negative stereotypes.”
The hope is that perception can change, he said.
“We're trying to improve on that…everybody regardless of your race, your color, your background should have the ability to afford to have your own home or to be able to live here,” said Longalong.
As such, Queens Power is calling on all housing built on Creedmoor’s ground to be affordable.
“The contention of Queens Power is that people should be able to live and work comfortably on the income that they make, which I don't think is a far-fetched argument,” said Kingsley.
Queens Power, the group behind the calls for affordable housing at Creedmoor, rallied outside Governor Kathy Hochul’s Manhattan office this week. Photo courtesy of METRO-IAF NY
“It will be a shame to let that land go to waste,” he added.
Longalong also said that not all 54-acres need to be housing, and there should be room for community and recreational development as well.
Earlier this week, the group rallied with other city clergy members to call for more affordable housing citywide.
“Governor [Kathy] Hochul has a responsibility to the citizens of this state, and we are here to demand 100 percent affordable housing,” said Bishop H. Curtis Douglas, the senior pastor of Dabar Bethlehem Cathedral in Queens Village. “We are creating refugees that are leaving for North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Texas and Georgia. People aren’t leaving because they don’t love this city – they’re leaving because they can’t afford this city.”
The rally was held outside the governor’s office, and rally goers called for her to hold a meeting with them on establishing 100 percent affordability at Creedmoor.
In July, the Eagle reported that the release of the first draft of a Creedmoor plan had been delayed. At the time, ESD said that a master plan would be released in the fall, however no such plan has been presented to the public as of Friday.
When asked about the plan’s release on Friday, ESD did not provide the Eagle with a concrete date.
“ESD will be releasing in the coming months the Creedmoor Master Plan, informed by a robust community engagement and public workshop process,” and ESD spokesperson said in a statement. “The plan will identify new opportunities for open space, community spaces, and housing, laying out the next steps which include environmental review and subsequent RFPs and opportunities for continued community input.”
Richards’ office did not respond to requests for comment.
