Residents wary of de Blasio’s housing plan

Locals oppose construction of new buildings, fearing it will lead to gentrification

From left: East New York and Bill de Blasio
From left: East New York and Bill de Blasio

Residents are increasingly critical of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s housing plan, that includes adding affordable housing to some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods.

Hostility is coming from East New York — one of the six areas the mayor picked for mandatory affordable housing during his State of the City speech on Tuesday — and other places, according to the New York Times, as residents fear that new developments will transform neighborhoods beyond recognition and potentially push out long-time residents.

While affordable housing is needed in the city, many residents are wary after they feel that projects from the Bloomberg era— for example, Pacific Park near the Barclays Center, formerly known as Atlantic — didn’t deliver the amount of affordable housing that was promised, the newspaper reported.

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In Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, some residents are against all development, the newspaper reported. In Sunset Park, residents are opposing a new all-affordable building that would also expand the local library branch.

Community Action for Safe Apartments housing organizer Susanna Blankley told the newspaper that new major developments have to be accompanied by strong, neighborhood-specific policies that will protect existing tenants.

“If we don’t do this right,” Blankley told the Times, “we stand to lose any semblance of affordability in the city.” [NYT] — Claire Moses