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Building By Faith
Two issues close to Borough President
Adams’ heart are expanding affordable
housing and ensuring the vitality
of Brooklyn’s religious institutions.
Thousands of Brooklynites struggle to
pay rent amid the increasing cost of living
and the challenging housing market
for low-income individuals and families.
Locating adequate land to build this
much-needed housing is no easy feat.
At the same time, houses of worship
feel fi nancially squeezed, as they work
to attract and retain worshippers while
providing the necessary services that
their local communities need.
In an innovative public-private partnership,
Borough President Adams has
established the Faith-Based Development
Initiative, which aims to spearhead
the construction of a ordable
housing on underutilized land owned by
religious organizations across Brooklyn.
The e ort focuses on opportunities such
as a church partnering with a developer
to build low-income apartments on its
land under existing development rights.
This creates new a ordable homes
for parishioners and local community
members, and establishes funds for
houses of worship to use for missions
like expanding a food pantry or hosting
senior activities. Borough President
Adams has convened faith leaders at
Brooklyn Borough Hall for various forums
and workshops to have them
learn from industry experts about how
they could work with the City to develop
a ordable housing and generate revenue
for their institutions.
“We want to stop the hemorrhaging
of a ordable housing in Brooklyn,” said
Borough President Adams. “Our dollars
will go a long way when we partner with
local organizations and developers.”
Borough President Adams announced
the fi rst $1 million allocated to
this initiative in October 2016 at Calvary
Community Church in Crown Heights,
which will build 154 a ordable units for
low-income seniors and middle-class
families, working in partnership with
a regional non-profi t group as well as
a local developer. The project will also
include 11,000 square feet of groundfl
oor retail space and a 17,000 squarefoot
multi-use community facility to
be operated by the church. The funds
from his Fiscal Year 2017 (FY17) capital
budget also supported the creation
of Ebenezer Plaza, a 481-unit mixeduse
a ordable housing development
in Brownsville. The project, located on
vacant land owned by the Church of
God of East Flatbush and inclusive of
Borough President Adams presented honorary checks in the lot of Calvary
Community Church in Crown Heights as he unveiled his affordable housing
capital budget for FY17.
new ground-fl oor retail space as well
as sanctuary space for the existing congregation,
will ensure that 100 percent
of all units will comprise renters under
60 percent of area median income (AMI).
“What we believe is that the people
who lived here before Starbucks came
in should be able to stay and buy one after
it comes in,” said Borough President
Adams.
Borough President Adams’ Faith-
Based Development Initiative has also
been advanced through his role in the
Uniform Land Use Review Procedure
(ULURP). This March, responding to a
land use application in Ocean Hill, he
called for zoning map amendments
that would facilitate construction of
a mixed-use residential building with
67 a ordable housing units and new
church space on the site of the existing
True Holy Church. This development is
proposed to meet Passive House design
and sustainability standards and
include signifi cant minority- and women
owned business enterprise (MWBE)
Photo Credit: Erica Sherman/Brooklyn BP’s Office
involvement.
“This is the fi rst time I have used the
ULURP process to advance this initiative,
and I am excited to do so in a community
like Ocean Hill,” said Borough
President Adams. “This project promises
to create critically-needed housing
for dozens of our very low- and lowincome
neighbors, including formerly
homeless veterans.”
To date, Borough President Adams
has identifi ed more than 2,700 tax lots
across Brooklyn associated with houses
of worship, with hundreds estimated
to have corresponding property rights
that may align with this initiative. He has
‘faith’ that the early success of the program
will lead to more community-oriented
opportunities in the near future,
creating hundreds of additional a ordable
housing units.
“It is my mission to ensure Brooklyn
remains a place where everyone can afford
to call it home,” said Borough President
Adams. “I hope this initiative sets
the standard for the whole city.”
BROOKLYN NEWS