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Queens, according to the report, is home to the largest amount of unused city properties: 1,143.
By Michael V. Cusenza
Approximately 20 percent of the properties now owned or leased by a City agency are classified as having “no current use,” according to a recent study conducted by the Municipal Art Society of New York and cited by State Sen. Joe Addabbo, Jr. (D-Howard Beach) as he renewed his call to the administration to make use of the empty space to combat New York’s increasing homeless problem.
Addabbo also noted that the report, which was first published in the real estate news magazine The Real Deal, found that most of the unused properties – more than 1,100 – are located in Queens.
“These pieces of land that are owned or leased by the City of New York are costing valuable taxpayer dollars to keep and maintain, made worse by the fact that they are sitting unused in a time of serious need,” said Addabbo. “While Mayor de Blasio is busy spending $1.7 billion in additional taxpayer money in his unsuccessful attempt to fight homelessness, further precious resources are being wasted to hold onto these properties that could be used to fight this same crisis.”
In October, several borough elected officials, including Addabbo, and civic leaders spearheaded a spirited rally replete with chants and signs on the steps of City Hall to denounce what one city pol called the mayor’s “hopeless homeless policies.” During the press conference, Addabbo detailed alternative plans of action – including utilizing vacant land across the five boroughs – that the City could employ not only to provide more adequate shelter for those in need, but to keep New Yorkers from losing their homes in the first place, the senator said.
“As more inappropriate, prison-like accommodations for homeless individual continue to pop up throughout the five boroughs, more than 8,500 acres of city owned or leased land has been sitting vacant, being wasted when it could instead be helping us solve this increasingly serious problem,” Addabbo added. “By this point, we have all seen that converting hotels into living space is not an adequate solution to this crisis. These facilities are not equipped to serve as a primary residence, offering minimal, limited amenities and only further delaying the transition into permanent housing. I have publically stated several times now that Mayor de Blasio needs to take advantage of vacant properties across the city to construct more affordable housing or even build quick, temporary modular apartments that are more appropriate than simply warehousing people into hotel rooms for years at a time. With this news confirming the thousands of properties that are already under city control but not being used, there is no excuse to let them sit vacant while more than 60,000 people need our help. It is time for this administration to stop ignoring the fact that there are more viable alternatives than staying on a failed course.”
According to The Real Deal, a mayoral spokeswoman indicated that the de Blasio administration is “focused on developing affordable housing, building and modernizing our parks, libraries and schools — and doing so in a manner that ensures community engagement… to suggest that there are acres and acres of underutilized properties that are being ignored by the City is simply untrue.”
