CATHOLIC CHARITIES BROOKLYN & QUEENS
RALLIES FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING
AT THE QUEENS WEST SITE
QUEENS WEST, NY—Catholic Charities Brooklyn & Queens
and Queens for Affordable Housing (QFAH) – a coalition of
Queens civic groups, housing advocates, social service agencies
and community development corporations – recently joined
together in a rally on the Queens waterfront to demand that the
newly announced Queens West housing be affordable to average Queens
residents.
In October, the Bloomberg Administration announced plans to acquire
24 acres at the Queens West site in Long Island City from the
Port Authority of NY/NJ for mixed-income housing development.
The City of New York would contribute at least $146 million to
acquire and prepare the site. Under their plan, up to 5,000 units
would be built for families earning from $60,000 to $145,000 per
year. According to analysis of newly released data by the Pratt
Center for Community Development, not a single one of the 5,000
proposed units would be affordable to more than 60% of Queens
households, excluding them from living at this prime location.
“We’re here to make clear that it’s important
that new housing development reach New Yorkers of all income levels,
including working families,” said Josefa Castro, Community
Project Director at Catholic Charities Brooklyn & Queens.
“Politicians like to talk about affordable housing,”
added Natividad Hernandez of Centro Hispano ‘Cuzcatlan’,
“but they don’t feel the crunch that we do when it’s
time to pay the rent. If they want to create housing that is affordable
in Queens neighborhoods, they shouldn’t price it beyond
our means. Otherwise, why bother?”
Following the Queens West rally, thousands of postcards calling
for more affordable housing on the Queens West site were delivered
to the Mayor’s office at City Hall.
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Catholic Charities Brooklyn & Queens has been providing quality
social services to the neighborhoods of Brooklyn and Queens for
over 100 years. The agency currently sponsors 170 programs and
services for children & youth, adults & seniors, the developmentally
disabled, the mentally ill & the isolated, and provides 3,000
units of affordable housing.
Queens for Affordable Housing is a new coalition of community-based
organizations, which was recently formed to ensure that the benefits
of new private housing development which use public resources
reach people of all income levels.
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