EDITOR'S NOTE:
This transcript comes from the mayor's office.
Kyle Bragg, President of Local 32BJ SEIU: Good morning. I'm Kyle Bragg and I'm president of 32BJ SEIU. And I'm super psyched to be here this morning to support affordable housing here in our city. It's not just housing that we need in our city, but we need good jobs that accompanies housing. The bottom line is we need affordable housing throughout our communities. Our city needs affordable housing and it can be done and it can be done right. And that's what this project is about, that I'm so happy to be here to support. Multifamily housing not only provides affordable housing for the city, but it also provides good paying jobs with benefits. And that's why 32BJ is happy to stand in support of this Bruckner project.
We also are supportive of developments that we need in this community because it not only builds housing, but is also taking care of our seniors and our youth. They're building a supermarket and making space for senior citizen housing as well. So I want everyone to know that 32BJ and its members who live in this community are super excited about this because they get the opportunity to not only see affordable housing, but to work in the communities that they live in. So thank you everyone. And now I get to bring up a longtime friend and ally, the Commissioner of HPD Adolfo Carrión.
Commissioner Adolfo Carrión, Jr., Department of Housing Preservation and Development: Thank you everybody. Thank you. Thank you, Kyle. Thank you very much my friend, Kyle. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to the City Hall steps. My name is Adolfo Carrión. Like Kyle said, I am the commissioner of housing for the City of New York. I'm here as commissioner of housing, but more importantly, I'm here as a New Yorker and I'm here as a Bronxite.
Before I share my thoughts about this and introduce the mayor, I just want to call out some friends and supporters and people who are championing affordable housing in every neighborhood across the city. They, like Mayor Adams and this administration, do want to create a city of yes. A city that affirmatively looks forward. A city that builds. A city that's affordable. A city that's user friendly. A city that's family friendly, and that will continue to grow and prosper. And these friends are — let's hear it for 32BJ. Let's hear it for los amigos from Laborers Local 79. Oh, they're a little louder than 32BJ man.
Audience members: (Chanting) 32BJ. 79. 79. 79.
Commissioner Carrión: Every New Yorker likes a little competition. You know what I mean?
Audience members: All good.
Commissioner Carrión: I want to thank our friends from the New York Housing Conference. Give them a big applause. Thank you Rachel and Brendan and the team. How about Open New York? Open New York. There we go. And one of my favorites is the Bronx institution in the neighborhood, the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club. Give it up for the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club.
(Applause)
So let me just tell you why I thought it was so important to be here and why the mayor said, guys, we got to get together and we have to make a public statement, supporting the idea and the ideal of making New York affordable for every kind of New Yorker. If you are a young family just starting out in New York City, you need affordable housing. If you are a person who's an older New Yorker, who's lived out their dreams, has raised a family, and now you're going into your retirement years, you need affordable housing. If you are a New Yorker who works for government as a cop, as a nurse, as a teacher, you need affordable housing. If you are a working family, if you are one of those people who trudges every day on the subway and on buses to get to these office buildings, to the restaurants, to all the places, the entertainment centers, the hotels everywhere, all across the city, you need affordable housing. And I'll finish with this and hand it off to the mayor. Couple of weeks ago, Mr. Mayor, I meet a mom — African American woman, dedicated lifelong teacher — raised four boys in Central Harlem who went to college. Those four boys went to college and left. They came back and they could not find affordable housing in their own neighborhood. So they went to Newark and Philly and Atlanta. We need affordable housing in every corner of this city. Every neighborhood needs to do its part. This is a partnership.
And now ladies and gentlemen, our leader, the leader for this time, the great mayor of the City of New York, Mayor Eric Adams.
(Applause)
Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Thank you so much. And I don't think the term is leader, but servant. I'm here to serve the people of this city to move us in the right direction. And nothing is more important and paramount. We hear all over the city no matter where we go — we hear affordable housing, housing, housing, housing. That is the number one issue that we hear. Far too often people who are the doormen, the cleaners, people who are the laborers, the contractors, the builders, they cannot afford to live in the space that they are building and developing in their city. That is at the heart of this issue. And who we're talking about? We're talking about the men and women who are members of the unions that are behind us. You hear everyone articulate and talk about the need of affordable housing. We need it, we need it, we need it. Let's build housing. Let's build housing. “Oh, but not on my block. Not in my neighborhood. Not near my park. Not near my school.” No, that can't happen. If you do an analysis of where we're putting this good housing, this is in an area where it has no affordable housing.
The lack of diversity in this community of believing that you can only have certain communities that you could develop in, that is not acceptable. This is a city that's diverse. This is a city where veterans are looking for housing — those men and women who you salute every day because they protected our country. This is a city where our nurses, our porters, our workers are looking for affordable housing. You gave them a hand clap at 7 p.m., yet you don't want to develop in your community to give them the housing they deserve. That is unacceptable. That is unacceptable.
This is the city where you have PAAs, those 911 operators who field those emergency calls, but they can't live in the communities that they are keeping safe and protected. This is a city where all income brackets deserve to have the appropriate housing that they're looking for. This project is just right, it's the right project for the right time. And if you start placing barriers around communities stating that you can't live here or build here, that is an unacceptable place. If you look at this place that we are bringing, in places like district 13 in the Bronx, only 58 affordable homes have been built since 2014 — 58. While we have a housing crisis, we have drawn a line around certain communities and say, “You cannot build here.” Not in our city. Not in our place where we believe everyone deserves to live.
And this project — I have to take my hat off to Jessica Katz and our entire team for finding the right project and pushing forward on this. This project brings 349 homes, 168 of which are affordable. This is a right equation. There's no reason we are pushing back on this. For our seniors — we just saw AARP. If you were to ask them, what's their number one issue, they're going to tell you affordable housing. They're going to say they want to live in affordable city. Our veterans, affordable city. Our city workers, 320,000 of them want to live in an affordable city. We want an affordable city and it starts with a house. Your home is more than just four walls, it's a precursor that allows you to experience the American dream. The nightmarish reality that far too many people find the city unaffordable. We're losing our talent, we're losing our people, we're losing our city because it's too expensive here.
One of the most impressive prophets of our time has a quote I want to say, the rent is too damn high. And we need to find places where the rent can be affordable. So I thank Local 79. I thank 32BJ. I thank the Laborers. I thank these union men and women who have come together to say it in a uniform voice that we want affordable housing all over this city. No neighborhood or community should be exempt of making sure that we allow all our residents to live together. We want to diversify our schools? Diversify our housing. We want to diversify access to healthy food? Diversify our housing. We want to diversify, how do we bring down hate crimes? Diversify the communities. If we want to diversify our city, we could live together in unison, but you can't do it if some areas are more expensive or too expensive for everyday New Yorkers. The entire city belongs to our city. This is a good project that'll place us on the right pathway of ensuring we get the affordability we're looking for. Thank you union members.
