The “Just Home” proposal to house seriously ill people leaving jail cleared one of its final procedural hurdles at a heated public hearing, where locals repeatedly testified that they feared for their safety.
A plan to house seriously ill people leaving jail cleared one of its final procedural hurdles Wednesday night, at a heated public hearing on the Northeast Bronx Jacobi Medical Center campus where locals repeatedly testified that they feared for their safety.
The meeting had initially been scheduled for mid-November, but Health + Hospital Corporation (HHC) postponed it in the leadup to last month’s citywide general election, City Limits previously reported. City Hall and The Fortune Society, the criminal justice nonprofit selected to operate the apartments, had hoped to make the controversial project less of an election issue.
Fortune Society’s incoming CEO Stanley Richards, formerly incarcerated himself, urged residents of the surrounding neighborhoods of Indian Village, Pelham Gardens and Van Nest to think of the alternative for prospective Just Home tenants, who might otherwise remain in city jail infirmaries—or, upon exiting jail, end up homeless.
“Who in this room would want to see a loved one out on the street, in trouble, cycling through a system of despair and hopelessness?” he said.
But most of the attendees rebuffed his appeal, instead condemning the project and predicting that future tenants could commit a range of crimes in their community, between criticisms of HHC for scheduling the hearing at 4 p.m., during work hours.
“Whether they turn over a new leaf and make something good of themselves, which I pray that they do, or whether they go out and rape and rob and assault people, they [Fortune Society] are getting paid,” said Roy Mandina of Indian Village.
Mandina also drew a spattering of applause for an extreme analogy involving Adolf Hitler, accusing Fortune Society of using “smoke and mirrors” to try to make the crowd “forget about all of the atrocities” likely to occur.
“He fought for his country, he received the iron cross, he wrote a best-seller book, he was an animal lover, he became an artist… his name was Adolf Hitler,” he said. “Okay? You like him living next to you?”
In a September FAQ, HHC emphasized that most people detained on Rikers Island, the city jail complex where the project’s tenants would be coming from, are awaiting trials and have not been convicted of any crime.
Just Home would include 58 supportive apartments in a currently-vacant building on the Jacobi campus, with on-site services for Geriatric & Complex Care Service patients —either with completed sentences or awaiting court dates—most of whom have a diagnosis such as cancer, lung disease or diabetes.
Another 24 studio apartments would not be set aside for that population, but would serve low-income tenants earning up to 60 percent of the area median income, or $59,340 for a single person, according to Fortune.
A 2023 study by Columbia University researchers and the Corporation for Supportive Housing checked in on more than 60 New Yorkers with frequent jail and shelter stays a decade after they were placed in supportive housing, and found that most saw no incarceration or shelter time aside from limited shelter stays in the first months.
Yet such apartments can be hard to come by. Ryan Acquaotta, a Northwest Bronx resident and court advocate, attended Wednesday’s hearing having become frustrated with the shortage of options available to men leaving Rikers. In his work, he helps these men search for housing, including two recent clients who use wheelchairs.
“I’m just thinking of these guys, where are they going to be able to live, where they can get the care that they need,” he told City Limits. “When I heard this project was happening I was like, hell yeah. Easily you could fill that.”
The Jacobi Medical Center is located in Council District 13, which produced among the fewest city-financed affordable housing units in the city between 2014 and 2022, according to the New York Housing Conference, ranking 47 out of 51 districts.
“Creating the safe, affordable homes New Yorkers need requires an all-of-government approach, and every community must do its part,” said Jeanette Merrill, assistant vice president of communications and external affairs for HHC’s Correctional Health Services, in a statement Wednesday.
Many Just Home critics, including incoming Council Member Kristy Marmarato, have said that they would prefer to see housing for seniors or veterans on the site. Marmarato, a Republican, unseated Democrat Marjorie Velázquez last month. Both candidates opposed Just Home.
“Let’s be clear that this opposition, to this specific Just Home initiative, is not a blanket objection to housing or affordable housing,” testified April Cardenas on behalf of Marmorato, who was home with COVID-19. “This is a plea for a more thoughtful and beneficial approach to helping other populations in need of housing.”
In response, one project supporter said there could be room for all three. Bronx resident Bonnie Massey told City Limits that she grew up on nearby Seminole Avenue in Indian Village, and was “enraged” at some of the comments from community members. Her family still owns the house, though she now lives elsewhere in the Bronx.
“No one is saying that we shouldn’t support veterans or that we shouldn’t support other vulnerable populations, but supporting one doesn’t mean taking away from another,” she testified. “It really doesn’t. What we should be doing is demanding that we get funding for all of the vulnerable people.”
But the evening’s dominant mood was one of skepticism that people with criminal justice backgrounds can be good neighbors.
“I wish that you all could have some empathy for how it feels to work so hard to maintain a home, to love your children and your family, to do all that you can to contribute to your society, and to have that threatened,” said Sharlene Jackson Mendez of Van Nest.
George Havranek, one of Marmarato’s opponents in this year’s Republican primary, addressed Richards of Fortune Society directly, describing him as exceptional and implying that most people who have been incarcerated don’t lead successful lives.
“You sir, are an exception to the rule,” he said. “You are basically a lottery winner.”
After the hearing, Richards reflected on these comments. “Some of the things that were said hurt,” he told City Limits.
He added that his life circumstances are not unique. “There are thousands of people who came through the criminal justice system and built a life for themselves, and so that’s the message we’re going to continue to communicate to this community,” he said.
Just Home is expected to go to the full HHC Board of Directors for a vote next month. It must then pass through the City Council. The Council vote, expected for early 2024, could cue up a test of the member deference practice, by which members typically vote in step with their local colleague on development matters.
“We hope that they listen to the incoming council member and do the right thing,” said project opponent and Pelham Gardens resident Phyllis Nastasio. “Councilmember deference needs to be upheld.”
To reach the reporter behind this story, contact Emma@citylimits.org. To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org
4 thoughts on “Plan to House Formerly-Incarcerated Inches Forward in the East Bronx”
It’s very disheartening to see the amount of bigotry and just outright hatred on display at every one of these meetings. Just try having some empathy. I hope this project goes through and is a huge success that helps many vulnerable people!
One area of major concern with “Just Home” is the fact that neither severity of offense or criminal history (including but not limited to acts of violence or crimes against children) will disqualify any former inmate from tenancy. Screening will be performed solely by the Fortune Society and tenancy will be granted solely at the discretion of the Fortune Society.
During a public meeting on Just Home residents were made aware of the story of Roderick Compass. Mr. Compass was a landlord who rented an apartment in his Springfield Garden Queens home to the Fortune Society. The Fortune Society then housed Sylvia Cruz and Jason Hermidas, a formerly incarcerated couple, in that apartment.
Many of us saw the media stories of how Ms. Cruz and Mr. Hermidas trashed the apartment they were placed in and the problems they gave Mr. Compass. But there is one part of this story that didn’t receive the coverage that the trashing of this apartment received. Mr. Hermidas, who was placed in an apartment in the same home as Compass’ two young daughters, is a registered sex offender.
How effective can the Fortune Society’s screening process be if it can result in the placing of a registered sex offender in the same home as two young children?
There have been far better uses proposed for the Just Home building besides housing dedicated for former Rikers inmates. Veteran’s housing and senior housing have been proposed. Affordable housing for Jacobi employees has been proposed. All alternatives far more palatable and far less risky for the community.
When this proposal was first disclosed to the public NYCHH and Fortune indicated that tenants would be gravely ill and practically at death’s door. We learned later on such presentations were misleading and that was not to be the case. The inmate tenants may not be as gravely ill as described and may include those suffering from mental illness and substance addiction.
If HHC and the city are dead set against housing veterans or seniors in these apartments and this building must hold former Rikers inmates then Fortune and HHC should at the very least agree to be bound to do the following:
Restrict tenancy to persons suffering from a clearly defined list of conditions (e.g. end stage renal failure, stage 4 cancer) and a clearly defined level of severity giving preference to former Rikers detainees meeting the above criteria.
This project is intended to provide housing for former Rikers’ detainees with “complex medical needs”. The principals of this project have repeatedly described prospective tenants as those who “may” have conditions such as advanced cancers or end stage renal disease or who “may” be nonambulatory however no strict definition of what constitutes “complex medical needs” as it pertains to this project was disclosed. “Complex medical needs” and “Medically complex conditions” are vague umbrella terms which can have different meanings depending upon context and program. The generally accepted definition is that these terms refer to conditions that are persistent, substantially disabling or life threatening, and that require treatments and interventions across a broad scope of medical, social, and mental health services. The term could refer to a person with end stage renal disease or it could just as easily apply to someone with hypertension and an enlarged prostate. The latest FAQ released by NYCHH confirmed that substance abuse and mental health issues will not serve as a bar to tenancy.
The principals of this project were asked if those incarcerated for certain heinous crimes or who had a history of certain heinous crimes (e.g. crimes against children) would be ineligible for tenancy in the building. The response to that concern is that that prospective tenants would be screened however there would be no blanket exceptions to eligibility. The events experienced by Mr. Ronald Compass ( who had his home destroyed and whose wife was assaulted by a Fortune Society client) illustrate how fallible such a screening process can be.
Finally The Fortune Society has been actively lobbying to eliminate practically all NYS registration requirements and residency restrictions on sex offenders. These safeguards are already notoriously weak in NYS and the developers of Just Home would like to weaken them even further. Fortune is also lobbying for the City and State to reward landlords who agree to house convicted sex offenders. It’s reasonable for the families living within close proximity to Just Home to be concerned
If both of NYCHH and the Fortune Society were being honest with the community tenancy would be restricted solely to those suffering from a clearly defined list of conditions (e.g. end stage renal failure, stage 4 cancer) and a clearly defined level of severity.
In Fresh Meadows, Queens, we have formerly incarcerated individuals housed in a hotel for more than 3 years. This program was put into place with ZERO notification to the commmunity. In the beginning it was said to implemented to keep those individuals safe from COVID which they would not be in the congregant prison setting. After the end of the pandemic, the program remained in place. The first provider was Exodus, with a very checkered history and they were ousted. Now it is Housing Works. A long term contract has been signed, again, with ZERO community input. The local CVS – directly behind the hotel – is continually shoplifted by the residents of this hotel. A new supermarket is scheduled to open in the same shopping center – we worry they will be continually shoplifted as well. There are currently 3 registered sex offenders housed in the hotel. At least one is a Level 3 offender, convicted of 1st degree rape and kidnapping of a 16 year old girl. Housing Works seems to know next to nothing about the individuals supposedly under their “care”. The Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice continually lies to us and does the opposite of what they say they will. The way our community feels about this program foisted upon us has nothing to do with “bigotry and hatred” as one of the commenters suggested. It has to do with the safety of the residents and businesses in our community. We have every right to be concerned!!!!