Mayor Mamdani has revived the controversial “Just Home” project in the Bronx, reversing the Adams administration’s attempt last year to nix the controversial project.
The project, at a vacant Jacobi Hospital building in Morris Park, is slated to provide supportive and affordable housing, mostly for people who were formerly incarcerated and with serious medical issues. The nonprofit Fortune Society will operate the site.
“We are not simply creating 83 new apartments and supporting those who are struggling, we are advancing the cause of justice,” Mamdani said at an MLK Jr. Day press conference Monday.
“This is a project which will provide a rent-stabilized lease to every single tenant, and it will prove that our commitment to homeless New Yorkers, and those who need supportive housing, is anything but abstract. It is tangible and it is actionable.”
Neighbors in the area railed for years against the plan, which was initially proposed and long-defended by the Adams administration. Despite that, Adams abruptly reversed course in September, announcing he would try to kill the project by moving it to a different location.
The attempted cancelling of the project came after his first deputy mayor, Randy Mastro, started looking for ways to block the project earlier that month, as first reported by the Daily News.
Despite the attempts to disrupt the plan, “Just Home” received formal approval from the City Council in September.
“Wow, what a great mayor we have and what an amazing commitment,” Health + Hospitals President and CEO Mitchell Katz said at the announcement.
A former senior official in the Adams administration defended Adams’ reversal on “Just Home,” telling the Daily News that Mamdani’s decision to revert to the original plan means throwing away progress made on an alternative housing site identified by the Adams administration in Brooklyn.
“It could have been a win-win,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.