West Harlem community members and officials are not giving up critical healthcare services without a fight.

“There are people here who have children, there are people here who are uninsured, there are people here who are migrants, there are people here who are on Medicaid and people who are uninsured and they have no other place to go,” Alexa Donaphin said.

“We’re here as families and we want to make sure that we have the best health that we can have next to us. That’s what America provides. They provide health,” Mordechai Tazem, a local resident, said.

Earlier this week, the community members sued the city over plans to redevelop a city-owned lot at 1727 Amsterdam Avenue into affordable and supportive housing.

Currently, the location houses two healthcare facilities: Heritage Health and Housing Inc. and Emma Bowen Community Center. 

The group claims that the project failed to go through the proper public review process that would’ve shown the plan would result in the loss of a critical healthcare center. 

“We sort of spent the last four years asking the city to take a look at the loss and those concerns went unaddressed,” Andres Orejuela said.

Once the project is complete, the Bowen Center, which provides mental health services, will return to the site. 

While Heritage, which is federally funded and provides health services to low-income and uninsured New Yorkers and those with Medicaid, will move two blocks south.

Residents, however, say that location is not ready yet and would lead to the displacement of some of the current supportive housing tenants. 

“It’s downsizing, and when Emma Bowen, which they have included in the project, comes back, it comes back at half the size it is right now. So how do you say that’s equal to what we currently have? It’s not equal, and it’s not just, and it’s not fair,” Donaphin, a plaintiff in the case, said.

Notably, the local City Councilman Shaun Abreu supports the project.

“The people of Harlem want their leaders spending more time making housing affordable and less time trying to stop every attempt at change. It’s time we listen to them,” he told NY1.

The project is one of 100 listed on the new Land Inventory Fast Track Tracker, or LIFT Tracker, that Mayor Zohran Mamdani unveiled on Thursday. He touted the projects as a sign of his efforts to keep the city affordable.

“At a time when too many New Yorkers are being priced out of our city, projects like this move us closer to building a more affordable New York. We are reviewing the lawsuit,” Casey Berkovitz, a City Hall spokesman, said in a statement.

Among the plaintiffs are three local officials, including State Sen. Coredell Cleare. 

“This is about a community wanting to have a say, and they also want to be included. You look at a lot of what’s going up in our neighborhoods in northern Manhattan and Harlem. These are units that are pushing people out,” Cleare said.

Cleare and the other plaintiffs say they aren’t against the new housing, but they want the health services to stay. They believe both can co-exist.

“We have an opportunity to do this right. Oftentimes it’s like we have to give up air for water. We can have air and water. It doesn’t have to be that kind of a choice,” Cleare said.

The final project, called the Hill Top Apartments, is expected to produce nearly 200 units of affordable housing — 120 of which would be dedicated to formerly homeless individuals.