On November 20, Harlem community members and activists, led by Defend Harlem with several faith and political leaders, gathered at the corner of 145th Street and Lenox Avenue to demand that One45 for Harlem, the new housing development set to be built there, be made affordable to Harlem residents. Specifically, they called for a housing subsidy so residents making between $34,320 to $70,000 can afford to live there.
The push to ensure affordability of the project has been ongoing for more than four years. One45 is expected to influence the rates of future developments in the area and Harlem overall, which organizers say makes the decision to make it affordable so critical. “You have the money to afford affordable housing,” said Rev. Dedrick Blue, ministerial director of the Northeastern Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, in his remarks directed at city leaders. “It should not only be for those who earn over $70,000, but minimum wage workers who earn between $35,000 and $65,000 ought to have a place to live in Harlem.”
One of the urgent issues protesters have pointed to is the current plan, approved by City Councilmember Yusef Salaam, for only 30% of the building’s 1,000 units to be affordable, but also the rate of affordability, which goes by the Average Median Income (AMI) and would only work for people making $120,000 a year, as opposed to the $45,000 that residents in the area’s ZIPcode 10037 actually make.
Defend Harlem is the campaign of the Interfaith Commission for Housing Equity, which has been a leading voice in the struggle over the new development. It comprises more than 30 faith leaders in the city. The campaign has significantly raised awareness of One45 with its social media presence, garnering a growing number of young volunteers and supporters.
Rev. Greg Merriweather of Mount Olivet Baptist Church asked about how the community is benefiting from One45.
“We don’t want to move out people that have created the culture while moving in people who don’t have respect for our culture,” Merriweather said. “We are asking that the priorities be placed with the people of Harlem … Throughout many other boroughs, we see affordable housing being built, but what’s being done for Harlem?”
Negotiations with Teitelbaum
James Felton Keith, an activist and candidate running for the 13th Congressional District seat, along with leaders of the Commission, had a sit-down meeting with developer Bruce Teitelbaum in September. Keith said that Teitelbaum informed them that he would agree to 50% affordability if there is a housing subsidy fund of $25 million. A housing subsidy of this type could be achieved through funding from the mayor, governor, or U.S. Representative representing the district. That position is currently held by Rep. Adriano Espaillat, and is the seat Keith is running for in 2026.
“Either listen to this developer and the people — these 36 representatives of the people — or you can keep doing whatever you want,” Keith said to political leaders. “We will not let this particular issue go away. We will keep this issue as a part of our regular platform.”
Keith has called out Espaillat for ignoring the issue of One45 and said he has not responded to attempts by Teitlebaum to discuss the project and negotiate affordability.
“I don’t think (Espaillat) wants to do any projects below 155th unless they’re on the far east side (Spanish Harlem),” Keith said. “Adriano doesn’t care about anything below 155th because no one makes him care about anything below 155th … As we lose population density here (Central Harlem), we lose our negotiating capability as well.”
A component that many point to as the reason why unaffordable (despite claiming to be) new developments continue to be built is that the AMI index used applies income rates from other areas, rather than an actual neighborhood.
“We deliberately do not have a database right now showing that we don’t make what they classify as affordable,” Keith said.
This is why Keith and others support the ballot initiatives that allow for reclassifying AMI by redrawing the map by the Department of City Planning and the mayor, and opening the door for establishing what Keith said can be a more accurate “local median income” index.
“To validate it and defend it in a court of law, we’d have to have a reference point, so the data matters,” he continued.
Early in the discussions about One45, former City Councilmember Kristin Richardson Jordan negotiated with developers to make it at least 50% affordable, but that was eventually backed out of. Since Salaam took the seat, the new agreement was announced at 30% affordability plus a third building for low-income seniors.
“What we are fighting for … is simply for the majority of the units in this project to be affordable to the majority of residents in this district …we should not be approving projects that don’t have that,” Jordan said during the rally. “I don’t think the current Council members should have approved this with the levels that it is at. That’s terrible.”
This project will be a disaster for Harlem. It is in a flood and hurricane zone that extend past Adam Clayton Powell. What are the contingency and environmental plans? Has anyone seen them? The real question are what provisions are being made to protect the Voting Rights Act, sustainability of the project and other concerns raised by neighboring developments and residents concerning the train station, congestion, air and light pollution. We will never learn. Bruce will sell this project before he builds it and if he builds it without receiving public funds, it will only be one tower which will impede the lives of existing residents. People forgot the Community Board voted this down twice, most community members objected to this project yet it was still voted up. There are way too many unresolved issues and answers and the only ones that will be hurt by these bad decisions are the local people. As Iv’e always said BUILD AS OF RIGHT
First of all, there is no HUD policy or Federal law mandating that the city has to use the Federal AMI metric for the New York City metropolitan area when deciding on a developer’s project proposal, unless such developer has been selected to participate in one of HUD’s tax credit programs or such other program.
And even then, HUD does not tie the City’s hands to do what’s in the best interests of the community, which could be lower than the required 80% of the AMI. In fact, in such cases the City could require the developer to set the units at an Income Targeted level which would be more suitable for an area that has most of its income levels much lower than the proposed AMI.
No. Developers choose to use the HUD AMI for this area and the city most of the time goes as long with it because they are into the gentrification business. Plan and simple.
So really, nothing has to be done with the AMI. There is no need for Congress to change the AMI because it really doesn’t have to affect us. The city and developers choose to use such metric because they are into community removal. This is the Democrat way.
Another thing that Johnny Come Latelies don’t know is that with this project the AMIs being used, whether 40, 60, 80, 120%, are the AMIs that will be in existence at the time of marketing of these units. I tried my best to get Community Board 10, and the rest to understand that. I mean the ONE45 proposal says that, almost pretty clearly. I made sure that everyone knew this at the CB 10 hearings. I also brought it up at all the hearings.
So the real income bands on these so called affordable units will most likely be 300-350 K for a family of 3; 200-250 K for a family of 3; 125-150 K for a family of 3; and 100 K for a family of 3 at the time of marketing.
But all this doesn’t mean anything because in truth this project is not likely to be built with this developer. In fact, I believe that the Community Benefits Agreement on this project does not run with the land. Me and a few others stressed that this must happen at the least. Although I was still against this project for so many reasons.
Finally, there are many environmental reasons why this project won’t happen with this developer. The cost of the project will likely be close to 7 BILLION DOLLARS. That’s right. 7 BILLION.
The time it will take to do this project to completion will be close to 15 years.
No. What you are witnessing is a heist. This developer plans to sell his new expanded property rights to an entity that might pay him 2 Billion. And that entity will have the 7 Billion or more to build. The MIH means nothing because you won’t be seeing too many Black people living there. And there won’t a community benefits agreement, not that it was anything worthwhile in the first place. In fact, you will be surprised at who the majority of the new residents will be.
All this was presented to CB 10, the Borough President, City Planning Commission, and City Council. And if the Amsterdam News was really up on this story (they) would know who the main people are fighting for the community in regards to this project.
* along
** Plain and simple