Yusef Salaam’s story has already been enshrined in history books—but for him to actually live inside a museum is a novel concept. So this past Tuesday, April 2, the councilmember toured the Sugar Hill Project in Harlem for a potential blueprint for how the city can make affordable housing, actually affordable.
Mixed-use hardly describes the Broadway Housing Communities’ (BHC) development, which opened in 2015 and was designed by the visionary but now-denounced architect Sir David Adjaye—the same mind behind the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Thirteen stories worth of graphite slabs, littered throughout with asymmetrical windows, tower over Jackie Robinson Park, a far cry from the “sweet life” brownstones that earned the Harlem neighorhood’s name, Sugar Hill.
But the cold exterior belies more than 100 affordable housing units that sit above both the Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling and a universal preschool, where children of residents and local community members are enrolled. Students make regular trips to the galleries next door—but not before they line up and sing, “We use our inside voices, we don’t shout,” ironically on the top of their tiny lungs, to the tune of “Frère Jacques.” It’s not hard to see why the development’s “three pillars” are housing, education, and art.
“This right here that I’m seeing is that very example of how to resuscitate life: providing housing for people who need it at various levels, providing school systems so that those individuals get the opportunity to also go out of their homes and seek employment, to better their quality of life, and also to have spaces that reflect where we are right now inside of the museum, where children and others get the opportunity to showcase their their work,” said Salaam, who represents the City’s 9th Council District in Harlem.
His tour officially started in the preschool. Housed between the lime-green walls are various art classes in session. At one table, a Spanish-speaking instructor teaches kids how to paint watercolors. Across from them, other youngsters are at work assembling clay sculptures. Their framed pieces decorate the space, joined by artwork made by the museum’s artists-in-residence who are voted on by the students.
Next up is the actual housing tour. A doorman greets the residents by name. Salaam is shown a two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment. There’s a walk-in closet, which he jokingly laments as the room to which his wife would relegate his office if they moved in. Salaam also points out the size of the fridge. It’s actually made for families that cook: Game-changing. The unit is prioritized for City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement (CityFHEPS) voucher holders, according to a BHC spokesperson.
“It’s not okay to warehouse people. We really have to think about how we house them, and do that in a quality, respectful and humane way,” said BHC’s Executive Director Charlene Melville. “For us, it’s thinking, ‘What does that look like?’ Because whatever you do in that building that you create affects the rest of the community. And if we’re talking about building healthy communities, we have to think about all the people that we’re housing and how we can best support them.
“What are the systems that we need to put in place? And oftentimes that needs to come from a ‘strengths-based model,’ not looking at them as being needy, but thinking about them as people who are strong and resilient and need some additional support. And what does that support look like and being respectful of what those needs are?”
The tour wrapped up in the children’s museum. Salaam, in his navy blue peacock, was in his element, striding down the halls while doubling his umbrella as a gentleman’s walking stick. One exhibit showcases the watercolor recountings of urban storefronts by Brooklyn artist Meridith McNeal. Another features eight women artists’ work depicting dynamic, structural pieces.
Salaam’s visit coincides with the city’s major housing crisis. Between 2021 and 2023, the net vacancy rate sat at just 1.43%, according to the latest Housing and Vacancy Survey. And cheaper units were almost completely off the market—just .39% of units asking under $1,100 a month were vacant, as were 0.91% of units asking between $1,100 and $1,649 a month. More expensive units were also limited but more readily available, with 3.49% of units asking for $2,400 a month or more having vacancies.
This past February, the Adams administration called for more affordable housing, advocating for the state’s collaboration on new tax incentives and situationally removing the “floor area ratio,” or FAR, a roughly seven-decade old law precluding sizable developments. Following Salaam’s visit, the Sugar Hill Project may provide indication of what the future could look like.
And the housing stock shortage coincides with a major exodus of Black New Yorkers, as reported in a census analysis by Gothamist last year. Salaam is an exemption; not everyone can move back to the Big Apple after assuming civil service. He says he’s making the most of the opportunity.
“What we have to do is be about the business of righteous collaboration, that is the work,” said Salaam. “That is the undergirding and support needed to make sure that we make [an] account. Because the seat that any one of us [is] in is a seat that we are in for a limited amount of time.
“How do we make sure that we properly prepare not only ourselves, if we’re going to be there next year and the year after that, but when we’re term limited out, we have to pass through the baton—the process of ensuring that the great work continues.”
Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member and writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.
Photographer credit is Michael Palma Mir