Adams’ Official Accused of Taking Bribes to Help Projects Jump the Line, and What Else Happened This Week In Housing

Manhattan prosecutors accused former Eric Adams aide Ingrid Lewis-Martin of using her influence to benefit landlords with business before the city in exchange for bribes and gifts.

In a wide-ranging indictment Thursday, Manhattan prosecutors accused former Eric Adams aide Ingrid Lewis-Martin of four counts of bribery, including several instances of her using her influence to benefit landlords with business before the city in exchange for bribes and gifts.

• In the first count, prosecutors alleged that Lewis-Martin helped property owner Tian Ji Li secure leases with New York City to house asylum seekers, over the objections of a city employee who said a site was “problematic.” Lewis-Martin and her son also allegedly expedited decisions and approvals by the New York Fire Department and Department of Buildings for a karaoke club in Queens. Li paid her son $50,000 for the efforts and threw “lavish” parties for Lewis-Martin. “I want you all to go back to the sites for TJ Li,” Lewis-Martin told Hamilton, according to the indictment. “I need those done…whatever site TJ wants, I need him to get them. Because that’s our f***ing people.”
• Lewis-Martin also intervened, the indictment said, on behalf of developer Yechiel Landau to help his Red Hook affordable housing project jump the line at the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). Lewis-Martin pressured Deputy Mayor for Housing Maria Torres-Springer and HPD Commissioner Adolfo Carrion, who resisted—but the first part of the project closed in December 2024. “We gotta get that place [HPD] under control, so when we f***ing tell them something, we expect them to make that s*** move,” Lewis-Martin wrote in a text message to Landau. In exchange, Landau paid for and ran renovations at Lewis-Martin’s house and the home of Jesse Hamilton, the former deputy commissioner for real estate services at the Department of Citywide Administrative Services.
• Finally, Lewis-Martin intervened to secure permits for a residential renovation for an unnamed co-conspirator in exchange for $10,000 worth of seafood catering for events at Gracie Mansion and City Hall in spring and summer 2024, the indictment alleged.

Prosecutors said that Lewis-Martin and her son received over $75,000 in benefits, $50,000 of which was direct kickbacks of taxpayer money from migrant shelter contracts. Both have pleaded not guilty, according to the New York Times.  

Here’s what else happened this week—

ICYMI, from City Limits:

• Incentives for landlords to hold units for CityFHEPS voucher holders will continue, at least temporarily, after a court appearance Thursday where lawyers for the City of New York stated their intention to send the rule change through an official public review process. The city wants to do away with the bonus payments in an effort to rein in CityFHEPS spending, though advocates say it that would make it even harder for people to use their vouchers.
• NYCHA is looking to partner with more private developers to create new housing near its campuses.
• Homeless New Yorkers are disproportionately vulnerable to increasingly hot weather, says one outreach group looking to provide refuge. “The people we serve are often the ones who feel the impact of these changes most, and they can’t escape it.”

ICYMI, from other local newsrooms:

• Monthly eviction numbers in the city’s housing courts have returned to pre-pandemic levels, according to Gothamist.
• Tenants at Carnegie House, dubbed “the only remaining affordable building” on Manhattan’s Billionaires’ Row, are facing a 450 percent rent hike, the New York Post reports.
• Trump’s U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will now only offer its materials in English, a move that critics say will make it harder for non-English speakers to access affordable housing and other needed services, according to the New York Times.
• Just how many apartments would be subject to a rent freeze if mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani gets his wish? City & State breaks down the numbers on the city’s stabilized and non-stabilized housing stock.

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