Mayor wants faith organizations to build affordable housing
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In Queens on Friday, Mayor Eric Adams announced a plan to allow houses of worship to build public housing as part of his City of Yes plan. Photo by Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
By Ryan Schwach
Mayor Eric Adams made a trip to Queens on Friday to announce a faith-based housing initiative that would allow houses of worship to more easily build affordable housing.
Adams, alongside South Queens clergy members and other elected officials, unveiled the plan, which he says will make it easier for faith-based organizations to add new housing on their property and generate income for their organizations through zoning law changes.
The initiative is included under the mayor’s expansive City of Yes housing program, which proposes zoning changes that would add “a little more housing in every neighborhood,” but has received some pushback from suburban areas in Queens and other boroughs from residents who are resistant to building up housing density in residential neighborhoods.
Highlighting one aspect of the plan on Friday, the mayor said the zoning law changes would allow faith campuses, which are typically large lots with multiple buildings on them, to create new housing on their available land.
“We cannot let old, outdated zoning rules keep us from building new housing and our mission driven, faith-based and community organizations can play a special role in this entire process,” said Adams from Antioch Baptist Church. “So, we say, ‘Yes, in God's backyard,’ today.”
As the city deals with an ongoing affordability crisis as well as an overcrowded shelter system, the hope is that programs like the one announced on Friday can open the door to more affordable housing in New York City neighborhoods, the mayor said.
“We're throwing open the door to new solutions and new housing that would help us solve the crisis by working with our churches, our synagogues, mosques and other faith organizations to build more housing and reclaim our city,” Adams said.
In Queens, Borough President Donovan Richards called the lack of affordable housing a “state of emergency.”
“We have 40,000 migrants in our care in this borough, but let me also add that we had a compounding issue with homelessness for a long time in our city as well,” he said at the church on Friday. “So, you add those two things together, and we are in a state of emergency – but there are some great signs of progress in the borough.”
Richards spoke in support of the faith-based housing plan, as well as City of Yes proposal more generally.
“This rezoning really gives us the opportunity to not just talk about the housing crisis but to get to be a part of the solution,” he said.
“I've heard from many of our leaders who want to be a part of the solution who want to do God's work, but who are really prohibited from doing it because sometimes…we have challenges in financing,” he added. “But one way to ensure we can move many of these projects forward is to do what God has called us to do and that is to take care of the least amongst us.”
The plan also aims to help the houses of worship. as well – a group that largely supported Adams’ bid for mayor – by allowing them to make revenue from the program.
“We have to have more flexibility,” Adams said. “We have to live in the real world. The ideal cannot collide with the real, and these faith-based leaders have been talking about this over and over again. They want to deliver more housing and we want to give them the opportunity to do so.”
Adams said he has turned to his faith, which he called his “northstar” on Friday, and the faith-based community to handle issues with the migrant crisis, gun violence and now housing.
“We are grateful for a vision that brings people together both in the government and also in the faith community to sit down and talk about the creative and awesome ways that we can help people to be empowered, to gain strength, to find home, to find a sense of belonging and to see a brighter tomorrow,” said the pastor of Antioch Baptist Church, Timothy Mitchell.
Other Queens officials, including Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar and State Senator Leroy Comrie, also spoke in Jamaica on Friday in favor of the housing plan.
“It's about time that we're hearing from the local ministers in our community and throughout our city that they want the City of Yes plan,” said Comrie. “I hope that they will go to their local elected officials, to their community board and that no stone is unturned to let them know that it's your time to be able to be developed, it's your time to be able to be able to expand your footprint so that we can allow young people to stay in New York, not to go to school and never come back.”
Comrie also spoke of some of the pushback on the City of Yes, mainly from local community boards.
“They are not going to like every element of it, but there's something in every neighborhood that they can use,” he said. “But the issue is to make sure that every neighborhood will use something.”
The City of Yes is expected to be up for approval before the New York City Council sometime by the end of the year, and Speaker Adrienne Adams, whose district includes the Antioch Baptist Church, issued a comment in support of the proposal last week.
"Confronting New York’s housing crisis requires innovative solutions and equitable contributions to produce more homes in every part of the city,” said Speaker Adams.
“Churches and houses of worship can contribute to the city’s housing goals, while being strengthened by the opportunity to develop housing, and citywide zoning changes that facilitate this outcome are important to consider,” she added. “It is imperative for us to engage all institutions and stakeholders in the efforts to address our housing crisis.”
