Harlem residents torn on new housing

In Central Harlem, a row of buildings between Frederick Douglass and Adam Clayton Powell boulevards has divided neighbors over an affordable housing development.

On one side are residents of the Ennis Francis Houses on 124th Street, who say they just want decent housing. Their apartments are deteriorating, and they would be relocated to new units on 123rd Street. On the other side are residents of brownstones on 123rd, who say the eight-story building would be out of context with the neighborhood.

The project, proposed by the Abyssinian Development Corporation, cleared a hurdle on Sept. 1 with near-unanimous approval from Community Board 10. It awaits City Planning Commission and New York City Council votes, and ADC hopes to begin construction in January.

In the current Ennis Francis building, “When it rains … it backs up into the residents’ apartments,” said Gary Coppedge, president of the building’s tenants association. “There were some places with mold where you saw mushrooms growing out of the carpet.”

Dozens of Ennis Francis tenants showed up for the CB10 vote.

“It’s very difficult when you have a roomful of people who want decent affordable housing to say no, we don’t think it’s appropriate for you,” CB10 chairman William Franc Perry said.

Joshua Bauchner, a member of the CB10 land use committee and a 123rd Street resident, said the 123rd Street Block Association voiced several concerns about the project.

He said the new building will be much taller than the surrounding brownstones and that ADC is avoiding a more arduous city review process by presenting the plan in stages rather than all at once. Residents are also worried that ADC might not have enough money to demolish and replace the old building on 124th, which may create a vacant space for crime to flourish.

They also feel ADC’s management of other properties has been subpar.

Sheena Wright, CEO of ADC, called these allegations misleading. She said the new building will be about 10 feet taller than the brownstones, not 30 feet as 123rd Street residents have claimed, and that a large building is needed to accommodate all Ennis Francis residents, each of whom will be relocated to an apartment with the same square footage as their old one.

“You can’t just upturn these buildings and pour the people out to suit your needs,” Wright said. “The project has to meet the needs of the people.”

She added that, though only phase two is going through the approval process now, phase three will go through the city’s full Uniform Land Use Review Procedure later, at which point there will be “a lot of engagement with the community board, elected officials, and others.” ADC has already submitted preliminary plans for phase three, but they need to be updated.

“What is the financing environment going to be in 24 months?” she said. “Projects take a long time to bake, and this one has been baking since 2005. ... I’m very confident we’ll be moving on to phase three as soon as phase two is completed.”

Several 123rd Street residents said they had seen drug deals behind the current Ennis Francis building and dealers scattering when police arrived. But Ennis Francis tenants said that drug dealing occurs in the brownstones as well.

“The parking lot [on 123rd]—the very place we’re trying to build a building—is and has historically been the site of drug activity and sales. Once you build a building there, that is no longer a place where you can do that,” Wright said. “The residents of Ennis Francis Houses very much feel they’ve been painted with a broad brush.”

The idea that “the entire building is out of control is so disingenuous and absolutely inaccurate,” said Kim Smith, former president of the Ennis Francis tenants association.

But the fear of crime is not the only issue.

“Eight stories will take away my afternoon sun. Most brownstones in Harlem are not surrounded by eight- to 11-story buildings on three sides,” said brownstone resident Susann Miles, who used to live in Section 8 public housing herself. She suggested moving some Ennis Francis residents to other ADC-owned buildings and building a smaller development for the rest.

At an Aug. 18 meeting of the CB10 land use committee, dozens of residents on both sides fleshed out an agreement under which CB10 would approve the plan with certain conditions. The next week, though, the executive board revised the conditions to be less stringent, Bauchner said.

Wright responded that at the Aug. 18 meeting, CB10 “talked broadly about what some of those conditions would be,” but never agreed on specifics. After that, “The drafter took verbatim the document from the 123rd Street Block Association and attached that as a set of conditions, which was not at all what the committee had approved.”

Among the final conditions are requirements that ADC provide adequate street lighting, remove garbage expediently and address traffic during construction, submit a complete plan for phase three, and maintain security if the old building remains vacant.

Bauchner said the block association asked Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer to evaluate the process but has not yet gotten a response. Stringer’s office did not respond to calls for comment.

Interestingly, each side said it wanted to sit down with the other and come to a compromise—but neither believed the other was willing to do so.

“Let’s discuss what’s best to the entire community,” Miles said. “I wish they would not pit residents against each other.”

“I’m hopeful that at the end of the day, we can have some type of happy medium where we’re able to move forward with the construction as a team,” Smith said.

Next up is the City Planning Commission vote, but CPC spokeswoman Jovana Rizzo said no date has been set.

maggie.astor@columbiaspectator.com