Council Member Inez Barron/Image Credit: John McCarten
The development will bring 503 permanent housing units, both affordable and supportive, to East New York. On December 10, 2019, the City Council approved a land use application for the development of four mixed-use buildings to replace a three-story homeless shelter at 515 Blake Avenue in East New York, Brooklyn. The buildings will be a combination of residential use, commercial use, and community facilities. The land use application, submitted by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, includes a rezoning to a residential district that allows taller and wider buildings to support the project’s size, a transfer of formerly City-owned land to HELP-USA, the project’s developer, a modification of bulk regulations, and a Mandatory Inclusionary Housing designation. The Council modified the project from providing temporary and permanent housing to providing only permanent housing.
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Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver Image Credit: John McCarten
Other agencies still missing from Council’s hearing on Park’s capital process. On November 12, 2019, the City Council’s Committee on Parks, Committee on Contracts, and Subcommittee on Capital Budget held a joint oversight hearing titled “Improving the Efficiency of Parks Department Capital Projects.” The hearing was chaired respectively by Council Members Peter Koo, Ben Kallos and Vanessa L. Gibson. This hearing was held in order to create a dialogue about the state of the capital process. In Fiscal 2020, the Parks Department has 619 active capital projects and anticipates spending almost $2.7 billion. These numbers have steadily increased since Fiscal 2016.
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Council member Mark Levine. Image credit: William Alatriste/NYC Council
If enacted into law, Intro 214 would make New York City the first municipality in the nation to provide free legal representation to low-income tenants in Housing Court. On March 26, 2014, the “Right to Counsel” bill was introduced in the New York City Council by co-sponsors Council members Mark Levine and Vanessa Gibson. The proposed law would provide free legal representation to low-income City tenants and homeowners earning income that is not in excess of 125% of the federal poverty line and facing eviction and foreclosure proceedings in Housing Court.
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