Governor Hochul Announces Completion of $86 Million Affordable and Supportive Housing Development in the Bronx

Delivers 154 Affordable Apartments, Including 86 With Supportive Services

Project Expands Access to Healthy Food With Greenhouse and Agriculture Programming

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced the completion of Baez Place, an $86 million affordable and supportive housing development in the Claremont neighborhood of the Bronx. Developed by Community Access in partnership with Blue Sky Bronx LLC, Baez Place delivers 154 high-quality apartments and features a community greenhouse designed to help improve the health and well-being of residents. Under Governor Hochul’s leadership, New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR) has created or preserved more than 10,000 affordable homes in the Bronx. Baez Place continues this effort and complements Governor Hochul’s $25 billion five-year Housing Plan which is on track to create or preserve 100,000 affordable homes statewide.

“Baez Place represents exactly the kind of bold investment we need to make New York more affordable and more livable,” Governor Hochul said. “Homes with services, amenities and opportunities to build community can help the most vulnerable New Yorkers live independently and achieve a sense of wellbeing and belonging. Developments like this strengthen neighborhoods and deliver on our commitment to ensure everyone has a safe, affordable place to call home.”

The development is affordable to households earning up to 80 percent of the Area Median Income. There are 86 supportive apartments for eligible tenants living with mental health concerns and seniors age 55 or older who have experienced homelessness. On-site support services are provided by Community Access and include case management, mental health support, employment assistance, and connections to health care and community-based resources. The development includes fully accessible and adaptable apartments. There are 38 units to accommodate residents with mobility disabilities and four units to accommodate residents with sensory disabilities.

Baez Place features a greenhouse and complementary urban agriculture programming, expanding access to healthy food. The greenhouse is available as a year-round social gathering space, helping tenants connect with nature, gain gardening skills, and reduce isolation.

The all-electric building was designed to meet high standards for energy efficiency and sustainability, including Energy Star Multifamily Highrise certification and 2020 Enterprise Green Communities requirements. Features include energy-efficient appliances, LED lighting, advanced heating and cooling systems, and water-saving fixtures.

Baez Place is located near the subway, buses and the Metro-North, as well as schools, parks, health care facilities and retail corridors.

State financing for Baez Place includes New York State Homes and Community Renewal’s Federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit programs that are expected to generate approximately $38.7 million in equity and $12 million in subsidy. The New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance provided $7 million through its Homeless Housing and Assistance Program. Operating expenses for the supportive units are funded through the Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative and administered by the New York State Office of Mental Health.

Governor Hochul’s Housing Agenda

Governor Hochul is dedicated to addressing New York’s housing crisis and making the State more affordable and more livable for all New Yorkers. Since FY23, the Governor has worked to increase housing supply to make housing more affordable by launching a $25 billion five-year comprehensive Housing Plan, enacted the most significant housing deal in decades and implemented new protections for renters and homeowners. Under Governor Hochul’s leadership, HCR has created new programs that jumpstart development of affordable and mixed-income homes — for both renters and homebuyers. These include the Pro-Housing Community Program, which allows certified localities exclusive access to up to $750 million in discretionary State funding. More than 400 communities throughout the state have been certified Pro-Housing, including New York City.

As part of Governor Hochul’s 2026 State of the State, the Governor proposed her “Let Them Build” agenda, a series of landmark reforms to speed up housing and infrastructure development and lower costs. This initiative will spur a series of common-sense reforms to New York’s State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) and executive actions to expedite critical categories of projects that have been consistently found to not have significant environmental impacts, but for too long have been caught up in red tape and subject to lengthy delays.

The FY27 Executive Budget completes the Governor’s current five-year Housing Plan to create or preserve 100,000 affordable homes statewide, including 10,000 with support services for vulnerable populations plus the electrification of an additional 50,000 homes. More than 78,000 affordable homes have been created or preserved to date. The Executive Budget also invests $250 million in capital funding to accelerate the construction of thousands of new affordable homes.

Housing Lottery Launches for La Olazul in Mount Hope, The Bronx

 

The affordable housing lottery has launched for La Olazul, a 13-story affordable and supportive housing development at 1940 Jerome Ave in Mount Hope, The Bronx. Designed by STAT Architecture PC and developed by Vaya Development and Westhab, the structure yields 115 residences. Available on NYC Housing Connect are 37 units for residents at 60 percent of the area median income (AMI), ranging in eligible income from $58,320 to $105,000.

Amenities include an elevator, laundry service, community center, gym, bike storage lockers, and a rooftop terrace. Residents are responsible for electricity including air conditioning and stove.

At 130 percent of the AMI, there are 29 studios with a monthly rent of $1,590 for incomes ranging from $58,320 to $77,760; six one-bedrooms with a monthly rent of $1,695 for incomes ranging from $62,435 to $87,480; and two two-bedrooms with a monthly rent of $2,017 for incomes ranging from $74,880 to $105,000.

Prospective renters must meet income and household size requirements to apply for these apartments. Applications must be postmarked or submitted online no later than May 8, 2026.

Council Analysis Identifies Nearly $1.7 Billion in Potential Resources for FY 2026

 

Findings suggest the City can avoid tapping the Rainy Day Fund

Separate Council forecast shows relatively stronger revenue outlook than the Office of Management and Budget for FY 26 & 27

Speaker Julie Menin and Finance Chair Linda Lee released the New York City Council’s March 2026 Economic and Tax Revenue Forecast, alongside an initial analysis identifying nearly $1.7 billion in potential savings and additional revenue for Fiscal Year (FY) 2026, which ends June 30.

The Council’s analysis suggests the City can maintain fiscal discipline and protect critical services without drawing down New York City’s Rainy Day Fund (formally the Revenue Stabilization Fund). In its Preliminary Budget released in February, the Administration of Mayor Zohran Mamdani proposed utilizing nearly $1 billion from the fund in the current fiscal year.

The proposed drawdown of the Rainy Day Fund would lead to a vote by the Council by the end of March through a Revenue and Expense Modification to the FY 2026 budget sent by the Administration on February 24.

The Rainy Day Fund was created in 2021 by the Administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio. Since its launch, it has gradually climbed to $2 billion and has never been drawn down, even during the recent migrant funding crisis.

Among the resources identified in the Council’s preliminary analysis, beyond current projections from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), are nearly $1.4 billion from debt service adjustments, realization of accrual savings from unfilled agency vacancies, and unrecognized interest earnings from entities such as the Retirees Health Benefits Trust and cash holdings.

“The Rainy Day Fund was created to help protect New Yorkers during a true fiscal emergency, and has never been tapped,” said Speaker Julie Menin. “Our analysis suggests we are not in such an emergency position today. The Council believes there are additional savings and revenue opportunities that can be identified through the budget hearing process, both for FY 2026 and 2027, and we will continue working with the Administration to ensure the City’s finances remain strong while protecting this critical safeguard.”

The Council’s March economic forecast estimates $386 million more in tax revenue than projected by the Mayor’s OMB for fiscal years 2026 and 2027, reflecting a stronger long-term outlook for the City’s finances. That difference excludes any increase to the City’s overall property tax rate.

The forecast projects the City’s tax revenues will continue to grow at an average of 4.7 percent annually from FY 2026 through FY 2030, which is lower than the 5.5 percent annual average tax revenue growth experienced over the decade of FY 2010 to FY 2019.

The full economic forecast report can be found here.

Mexican National Pleads Guilty to Racketeering Conspiracy Involving the Forced Labor of Mexican Workers

 

Four Co-Defendants Previously Pleaded Guilty for Their Roles in Compelling the Labor of H-2A Visa Recipients Throughout the Southeastern United States

Alexander Villatoro Moreno, age 53, also known as Quichi, pleaded guilty in federal court in Tampa, Florida, to conspiracy under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. A federal grand jury in the Middle District of Florida had previously returned a six-count indictment against multiple defendants for their roles in the conspiracy, which victimized Mexican H-2A workers who, between 2015 and 2017, had worked in the United States harvesting fruits, vegetables and other agricultural products.

According to court documents, Villatoro Moreno and his co-defendants operated and managed Los Villatoros Harvesting (LVH), a farm labor contracting company, that functioned as a criminal enterprise compelling victims to work in Florida, Kentucky, Indiana, Georgia and North Carolina. Villatoro Moreno and his co-defendants fraudulently recruited Mexican nationals to come into the United States on short-term, H-2A, agricultural visas and misled the United States to secure visas for the victims. Villatoro Moreno and his co-defendants charged workers exorbitant recruitment fees to work for LVH and lied to the victims about how much they would be paid, the hours they would work, the working conditions and the reimbursement they would receive for paying recruitment fees and other expenses. The workers were then compelled to provide long hours of physically demanding agricultural labor, six to seven days a week, for far less pay than they were entitled to under the law.

In addition to the work conditions, Villatoro Moreno and his co-defendants used various coercive means to compel the victims’ labor, including imposing debts on workers; confiscating the workers’ passports; subjecting workers to crowded, unsanitary and degrading living conditions; verbally abusing and humiliating the workers; threatening workers with arrest, jailtime and deportation; isolating workers by preventing them from interacting with anyone other than LVH employees; and threatening to physically harm the workers’ family members back in Mexico if the workers failed to comply with their demands.

When officials began investigating, Villatoro Moreno obstructed the federal investigation by helping to prepare false payroll information to conceal underpayments to the workers and distributing fake reimbursement receipts to the victims to make it appear that LVH was complying with the law by reimbursing the workers for their travel-related expenses.

Villatoro Moreno’s four co-defendants previously pleaded guilty in connection with their roles in the scheme. Bladimir Moreno, Alexander Villatoro Moreno’s brother, owned LVH and pleaded guilty in 2022 to conspiracy to violate the RICO Act and conspiracy to commit forced labor. Efrain Cabrera Rodas and Christina Gamez, LVH supervisors, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the RICO Act while Guadalupe Mendes Mendoza, another LVH supervisor, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct a federal investigation. In 2022, Bladimir Moreno was sentenced to 118 months in prison and ordered to pay over $175,000 in restitution to the victims while Rodas and Gamez were sentenced to 41 months and 37 months in prison, respectively. Mendoza was also sentenced in 2022 to serve eight months of home detention and a $5,500 fine to be paid over 24 months of supervised release.

The Palm Beach County Human Trafficking Task Force, which includes the FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, investigated the case. The Task Force received assistance from the Department of Labor Office of the Inspector General, the Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division, the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Colorado Legal Services Migrant Farm Worker Division, Legal Aid Services of Oregon Farmworker Program and Indiana Legal Services Worker Rights and Protection Project.

The Government of Mexico, including the Fiscalía General de la República (FGR), provided significant assistance in the extradition of Villatoro Moreno to the United States. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs worked with law enforcement partners in Mexico to secure the arrest and extradition of Villatoro Moreno.

Trial Attorney Matthew Thiman of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Ilyssa Spergel for the Middle District of Florida are prosecuting the case. Former Trial Attorney and current Assistant U.S. Attorney Maryan Zhuravitsky for the District of Maryland also prosecuted the case.

Anyone who has information about human trafficking should report that information to the National Human Trafficking Hotline toll-free at 1-888-373-7888, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For more information about human trafficking, please visit www.humantraffickinghotline.org. Information on the Justice Department’s efforts to combat human trafficking can be found at www.justice.gov/humantrafficking.

Friends & Neighbors, 

 

Spring has sprung and it’s time to get out those Easter baskets, fancy hats, and pastel colors. It’s time for our annual Pelham Parkway Easter Egg Hunt!

 

This year, we’re thrilled to bring you an afternoon filled with music, games, face painter, popcorn, and of course, lots of Easter eggs. Here are the details: 

 

WHEN: Saturday, March 28, 2026

WHERE: Pelham Parkway Greenway (across from Peace Plaza)

TIME: 11:00AM - 2:00PM

 

Events like these are what makes our community so special. Come out, enjoy the afternoon, and spend time with old and new friends. 

 

Looking forward to seeing everyone then! 

 

In Gratitude, 

John Zaccaro, Jr. 

Partnerships for Parks - Learn to Care for Local Trees with the NYC Tree Map!

 

Willow oak street tree on Perry Ave in the Bronx, one of the "Great Trees of NYC", photo courtesy of NYC Parks.

Maples, Oaks, and More: The NYC Tree Map as a Stewardship Tool 

Do you look up as you walk through our city, curious about the trees? Join us for an interactive session hosted by Partnerships Academy exploring the NYC Tree Map, a free online tool developed by NYC Parks. We’ll hear from the deputy director of Digital Media at NYC Parks, Tom Hughes, about how the NYC Tree Map was designed and developed. You’ll then have time to use desktop computers to explore the NYC Tree Map and become familiar with navigating its features. We’ll conclude by hearing from members of the Jackson Heights Beautification Group Tree LC Crew about how they utilize this tool to organize and record their tree stewardship efforts.

This workshop is part of NYC Open Data Week, an annual festival of community-driven events organized to celebrate open public data. You can learn more here.

Tuesday, March 24, 2026, 6–7:30 p.m.
St. John’s Recreation Center Media Lab
1251 Prospect Place, Brooklyn, NY 11213

 

REGISTER NOW

Swiss Businessman Extradited to the United States Pleads Guilty to International Securities Fraud Scheme

 

A Swiss executive pleaded guilty today to participating in a multimillion-dollar securities fraud scheme after living abroad as a fugitive for nearly 11 years.

According to court documents, Martin Schlaepfer, 67, a Swiss national, identified himself to victims as the Chief Executive Officer of Malom Group AG, a purported Swiss investment company. Beginning as early as October 2009, Schlaepfer and his co-conspirators located in Switzerland and Las Vegas, Nevada, orchestrated a scheme in which they promoted investments that they knew to be fictitious. Schlaepfer and his co-conspirators told victims that, for an up-front payment, Malom would provide access to lucrative investment opportunities and substantial cash loans. To effectuate this scheme, the co-conspirators provided victims with fabricated bank documents purporting to show that Malom held hundreds of millions of dollars in overseas bank accounts. When victims wired their money into an escrow account controlled by the co-conspirators, the money was released and disbursed to, among others, Schlaepfer for his own personal use. As a result of the scheme, victims were defrauded of approximately $6 million.

Schlaepfer was indicted in December 2013. He was arrested in Italy in September 2024, pursuant to an Interpol Red Notice, and extradited to the United States in July 2025. Three of Schlaepfer’s co-conspirators, Anthony Brandel, James Warras and Sean Finn, were found guilty of conspiracy and multiple counts of wire fraud and securities fraud following separate jury trials in 2015 and 2020 and each sentenced to 87 months in prison. A fourth defendant, Joseph Micelli, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud in 2015 and was sentenced to 60 months in prison. A fifth defendant, Hans-Jurg Lips, remains at large outside the United States. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Schlaepfer pleaded guilty to securities fraud and is scheduled to be sentenced on June 9. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and First Assistant U.S. Attorney Sigal Chattah for the District of Nevada made the announcement.

The FBI’s Las Vegas Field Office is investigating the case.

NYC PUBLIC ADVOCATE'S STATEMENT ON THE ONE-HOUSE STATE BUDGET RESOLUTIONS

 

"As we work across city government to address the budget emergency left by the last administration, I’m grateful that state legislative leaders are proposing revenue raising and cost shifting measures to help fill the gap. Modest increases in the corporate and mansion tax rates and reductions in the pass-through entity tax credit would make a significant impact on the current shortfall and better prepare us for the future. Increased funding to support class size mandates will ensure our students receive the personalized attention they need. I implore the governor to add her support to these proposals. 

"I also commend the Speaker and Majority Leader for including long-delayed funding that New York City needs to implement Raise the Age-related programming – money that was promised but never provided. To date, less than a third of the designated funds have been allocated, and New York City hasn’t received a dollar. This is a vital investment in the success of our young people and safety of our communities.

"I continue to believe that the most effective means of not only meeting this moment, but enabling transformational initiatives for the long term, is to raise income taxes on the ultra wealthy in our city – a small percentage increase for a tiny percentage of residents will empower us to stabilize our own financial situation and secure services for New Yorkers who feel anything but stable in this affordability crisis. We owe it to working families to keep up this fight for economic justice."