Harlem made him fall back. He was gonna send them there
Adams reverses course on plans to use luxury Harlem complex as migrant shelter after community outrage
Mayor Eric Adams stunningly reversed course on plans to turn an abandoned luxury Harlem condominium complex into a migrant shelter when he was met with community outrage Thursday night.
Adams’ change of heart came during a surprise appearance at a St. Nicholas House Resident Association meeting packed with dozens of residents furious over the city’s plan for a building development on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd once marketed as upscale housing.
The 35-story building was quietly slated to become a homeless shelter that could potentially house migrants — a plan that was only revealed to the community this week when some neighborhood residents saw workers bringing bed frames and mattresses inside.
But in the face of pressure, Adams on Thursday night backpedaled.
“I told the team, ‘Find out what’s going on here. We’re not moving folks into a brand new building when you have long-term needs in a community. That’s not gonna happen,'” Adams said at the meeting, according to CBS New York.
“You will not have migrants and asylum seekers in that property,” Adams declared.
The site will instead be used to house long-term New York families experiencing homelessness, a spokesperson for the city Department of Social Services told the outlet in a statement.
The building, originally billed as a lux living space where residents would pay market rates to enjoy an indoor swimming pool and apartments with marble bathrooms, has sat vacant for a decade since developers were forced into foreclosure.
It was then leased to a non-profit that had been working with the city Department of Social Services/Homeless Services to use it as a shelter for either migrants or the Big Apple’s native homeless population.
Rest of story...
“I told the team, ‘Find out what’s going on here. We’re not moving folks into a brand new building when you have long-term needs into a community.”
nypost.com