Flushing lawmakers and residents ask for info on proposed transitional housing

Flushing United, a new organization, and lawmakers are asking the city for more information about a proposed transitional housing project in Downtown Flushing.  Photo via AAFE

By Jacob Kaye

A group of Downtown Flushing residents and local leaders are looking for answers about a proposed transitional housing shelter soon to be built in the neighborhood.

Several elected officials and a new nonprofit, Flushing United, came together earlier this week to demand the city and nonprofit Asian Americans for Equality, which is spearheading the project, share more information about a proposal to build transitional housing at 39-03 College Point Blvd.

“We all of a sudden found out that this shelter will be going into our Downtown area and we have been very anxious to know what happened with that,” said Jerry Lo, the acting president of Flushing United.

AAFE says the 90-unit transitional housing building is designed to temporarily house families and provide them with services as they work to stabilize their lives and find permanent affordable housing. Only families with at least one child under the age of 21 will be assigned housing in the building, AAFE says. Additionally, priority will be given to families living within Community Board 7’s borders, which covers Bay Terrace, College Point, Beechhurst, Flushing, Malba, Queensborough Hill, Whitestone and Willets Point.

Jennifer Sun, the co-executive director of AAFE told the Eagle that the organization began to see an increased need for temporary housing and housing services at the start of the pandemic.

“The pandemic has laid bare the need for families who are experiencing more housing insecurity, to have access not only to affordable housing, but also transitional housing, as a way of helping families experiencing housing insecurity get back on their feet more quickly,” Sun said. “With the expiration of the eviction moratorium, and landlords beginning to increase rents, especially in unregulated rental housing, we are seeing that the need for transitional housing is only going to grow and intensify.”

Families in the proposed building would receive a case worker and access to services including housing assistance and rental subsidies, Sun said.

The project was first proposed in the summer of 2020, when AAFE, which was founded in Chinatown in the 1970s, approached the Department of Homeless Services and inquired about the vacant land the project stands to now be built on. Urban Resource Institute, a nonprofit that serves people impacted by domestic violence, later signed on as a partner in the project.

Members of Flushing United said Tuesday that they feel the proposed project was rushed and that it’s rollout lacked any sort of community input. Because the construction of the building doesn’t require a zoning change, the project doesn’t need to go through the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure and thus, doesn’t need to be presented to the local community board.

Nonetheless, AAFE and the Department of Homeless Services will present on the project in front of Community Board 7 on Monday, Jan. 24. The board will not take a vote on the project and there will be no public comment period dedicated solely to the project.

“The last thing we need is for a major development in our community, without speaking to us, without transparency, without having meetings with us,” said Kenneth Chiu, a former candidate for the State Assembly and member of Flushing United. “We found out the way we found out, and honestly, throughout the last two years of a lot of prime targeting of Flushing and Asians, we are deeply disrespected and angry.”

State Sen. John Liu, U.S. Rep. Grace Meng and City Councilmember Sandra Ung have also raised concerns over the lack of transparency surrounding the project.

“The councilwoman has expressed her concern with the rushed nature of the project and the lack of substantive community engagement process,” a representative for Ung told the Eagle. “Moving forward, Councilwoman Ung is committed to a rigorous and transparent process and her office will continue to work with community leaders to ensure that DHS, URI and AAFFE are being held accountable to the Flushing community.”

Sun said that communication and community outreach by DHS under the de Blasio administration was “minimal” but that she feels it’s changing. Sun added that as a nonprofit, AAFE relies on DHS to conduct community outreach, which they have more capacity to do.

“AFFE, as a community based organization, can't do the same community engagement approach as a city agency does,” Sun said. “Because of our long term relationships with community members, and the trust that we've built over time, it is very important for us to be able to talk about the project early on, and to provide opportunities for the community to learn more about the need for transitional housing and how this project actually can be safe and have positive benefits.”

Sun also noted that some people opposed to the project may be worried about potential violence perpetrated against Asian Americans.

Attacks against Asian Americans have increased during the pandemic and ver the weekend, Michelle Go, an Asian New Yorker, was fatally pushed onto the subway tracks in Times Square by an unhoused man with a history of mental illness. The attack has not been determined to be a hate crime.

“I think what we are seeing is that some of the opposition is evoking those experiences and sort of projecting those experiences onto this project here,”Sun said. “That's why I think emphasizing that this facility will serve families with children who already live in Community District 7, in Downtown Flushing, is really important.”

In all, the transitional housing building has a $440 million price tag to be paid by the city, a figure opponents of the project have pointed to as a reason for concern. Sun defended the price, noting that while $16.5 million of the funds will go towards the acquisition of the land, the remainder of the funds will go toward construction and services provided to the families in the building for the next 40 years.