Housing Not High-Rises Community (formerly Arrow Action), July 2024 Update
We’ve been busy since our April community meeting, and we wanted to keep everyone up-to-date:
- We have a real proposal for 100% affordable housing at 7 stories
- Arrow Linen’s Rezoning application is now active with the city
- Fundraising appeal
We Have a Real Alternative and We Need Your Help!
Instead of two 13 story luxury towers, we propose building two 7 story buildings providing 268 permanently affordable apartments. We have had several meetings with an established and respected non-profit affordable housing developer who is ready, willing, and able to make a competitive market-rate offer for the Arrow Linen site, and develop it as 100% affordable housing targeted at approximately 60% of area median income. This means that people would actually be able to afford to live there! This building would be the right size for the neighborhood, provide much-needed housing at affordable rates, and would not threaten to displace the existing tenants in the neighborhood who can afford their rents today.
This solution is real, and the developer is ready to act.
Arrow Linen’s owner, John Magliocco, will not consider selling to this non-profit, because he will make millions more if the City Council approves his zoning request. As our City Council Member, Shahana Hanif, made abundantly clear at our last community meeting in April, this decision will come down to her. She is the one person with the most influence in Arrow Linen’s application, in a process that’s supposed to be democratic.
Council Member Shahana Hanif can limit Arrow Linen’s rezoning to 7 stories, which would make 100% affordable housing possible in our neighborhood!
She has told Housing Not High-Rises that she does not want to limit the rezoning, preferring to approve 13 stories of luxury high-rises. This would result in somewhere between 244 – 352 apartments, 25% of which (61 – 87 units) would have to be offered at 80% of area median income. She says that she will try to negotiate for more affordable units with the developer after the rezoning is approved, but once their application is approved, they are under no obligation.
We brought 268 units of 100% affordable housing to the table, at a scale that works for our neighborhood. Council Member Shahana Hanif can limit the rezoning to 7 stories and make this a reality.
We want Council Member Hanif to stand with the constituents who elected her and stand up for the affordable housing our community wants and our City desperately needs.
Please click here to send a pre-written email to Council Member Hanif or use our communication template to send your own message. We are counting on you!
What Is Motivating Our Council Member?
Council Member Hanif co-chairs the Progressive Caucus, whose principles include creating permanent, deeply affordable housing. She met with the non-profit developer of affordable housing. She met with Housing Not High-Rises. She knows this is real, and she knows that she can bring the results that our community and her caucus want and that our City needs.
When we pointed out that this non-profit developer can provide 268 units of truly affordable housing vs perhaps 75 units of slightly discounted housing that the proposed rezoning offers, she told us that she wants housing on this site for “all income levels.” This is a position inconsistent with the caucus that she co-chairs.
When we pointed out that it’s within her power and mandate to make this happen, she told us that she can’t dictate to whom Arrow sells their property. We reminded her that she made it abundantly clear at our last community meeting that she has the power to determine if the proposal is approved and can limit the rezoning to 7 stories. At that level, the non-profit developer’s offer would be so generous as to be the best available option. She told us that we’re overly concerned about height.
She says she stands for affordability, and yet seems to support Arrow Linen increasing their profit by tens of millions in order to bring luxury high-rises to the most affordable part of our neighborhood, threatening existing renters with displacement.
Instead of supporting profit-seeking landowners and developers, we want Council Member Hanif to stand with the constituents who elected her and stand up for the affordable housing our community wants and our City desperately needs.
Arrow Linen’s Rezoning Application is Active!
Arrow Linen’s zoning application is currently under “Community Board Review” as part of the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP). We expect there to be discussion and a vote on the application at the Community Board in the first weeks of September. We will keep a close eye on Brooklyn Community Board 7’s Calendar, and we will send out urgent emails to you when we know the specific dates and locations of these meetings. These meetings are a great opportunity to have your voice heard, along with the rest of Windsor Terrace and South Slope.
We will need a large turnout from our community for the Community Board’s review, we are counting on you!
Fundraising Appeal
We are entering a phase where we need to ask for financial support from our community. If you can, please make a donation (link uses PayPal). Every bit helps! If you would prefer to donate by cash or check, please send us an email to housingnothighrises@gmail.com and we will contact you to make arrangements.
Thank you for your support!
Chris, Jack, Jay, Julia, Kate, Luz, Marty, Phil and Steph