A coalition of nonprofit and church groups is advocating the transformation of a mostly dormant New York City psychiatric hospital into a 3,000-unit income-restricted apartment complex.
According to a report in The Gothamist, the Queens Power grassroots coalition is seeking to turn the grounds of Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens into an affordable housing development. The hospital, which housed roughly 7,000 people in its psychiatric inpatient facilities during its peak in 1959, is on state-owned land and most of the buildings on the site have not been used in years.
“Where are you going to find something like that in Queens or anywhere in the five boroughs?” said Ben Thomases, co-chairman of Queens Power. “We need 100% real affordability because this is a housing emergency, and in an emergency we need the state to use every tool at its disposal to respond.”
The median rents in Queens reached a record-high $2,700 in April and data from New York University’s Furman Center found nearly half of low-income tenants in the district where Creedmoor is located spent at least 50% of their earnings on rent last year.
Although New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a goal of 800,000 new housing units over the next decade, she has not publicly embraced the proposal regarding Creedmoor. A spokesperson for Empire State Development, a quasi-governmental state agency, said it was seeking input from local residents on the property’s potential.
Photo courtesy of Jim Henderson / Wikimedia Commons
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