Just Home, a supportive housing project for people exiting incarceration with major medical needs, was approved by City Council on Thursday after years of contentious debate — and after losing the support of Mayor Eric Adams, who first touted the project in 2022.
The Sept. 25 vote also broke from the tradition of member deference, whereby members usually vote in accordance with the local representative on land use decisions. In this case, Council Member Kristy Marmorato long opposed Just Home on behalf of her Morris Park constituents, who made their opposition loud and clear, but was ultimately overruled.
The council approved a 99-year sublease to the nonprofit Fortune Society, which will operate the development at a vacant building on the Jacobi Hospital campus.
Just Home will include 82 apartments, 58 of which will be supportive units with on-site services and medical care, and the rest will be regular affordable units.
NYC Health + Hospitals approved the project in 2024 but sent written testimony to the Sept. 18 hearing saying the city wanted to move Just Home to a different location and postpone the hearing and upcoming vote.
Ultimately, the full council held the Sept. 25 vote over the direct objections of First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro, on the mayor’s behalf.
In a statement, Marmorato blasted the vote as “embarrassing and hypocritical.”
“This was not about housing,” she said. “The administration already committed to relocating this project and expanding affordable housing at Jacobi. This was about power, ego, and politics. And how shameful that personal feelings were allowed to outweigh the voices of the people we represent,” she said.
Stanley Richards, president and CEO of The Fortune Society, celebrated the verdict.
“The fact is that providing formerly incarcerated people with supportive housing does not make our neighborhoods less safe — on the contrary, it makes us all safer,” said Richards in a statement.
“Just Home will prevent physically vulnerable individuals from entering our overburdened shelters, winding up on the streets, or languishing on Rikers Island. As we say at Fortune, everyone deserves a home, and today, the City Council has upheld and affirmed that belief.”
The Just Home Vote survives
Before the vote, Marmorato pleaded for member deference, saying she should have the democratic right to represent her constituents’ opposition to Just Home.
She also blamed the council for letting the project remain in limbo.
“If the council cared so much about housing, this would not have sat for over a year,” she said.
But Council Speaker Adrienne Adams made it clear the Just Home vote would proceed as scheduled and slammed the mayor for his “desperate, last-ditch attempt” to stop it.
In a Sept. 24 letter to the council, First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro had said a Just Home vote should not be held because the location originally applied for (Jacobi) was no longer being considered.
A footnote to Mastro’s letter said the city wanted to site Just Home at one of two possible buildings near Broadway Junction in Brooklyn. The vacant buildings are city-owned properties in Council Member Sandy Nurse’s district, and Mastro said he was “confident of greater local elected and community buy-in” at those sites.
Mastro said that “without the mayor’s approval, the project cannot proceed [at Jacobi] as currently contemplated.”
However, Speaker Adams said the letter was an “irrelevant” attempt to subvert the council’s power.
At the meeting, several members spoke in support of Just Home.
Nurse, who said she recently cut the ribbon on a similar project in her district, said she hoped Marmorato would build a relationship with The Fortune Society and Just Home residents, who are “in most cases, dying” and “need our sympathy and care.”
She also said she dedicated her approval vote to Mastro, drawing snickers from the members.
Bronx Council Member Pierina Sanchez said Just Home will provide “stable, dignified housing” for a “population that too often is pushed to the margins with nowhere safe to go.”
She also said some neighborhoods have “resisted doing their fair share” of housing, especially for vulnerable communities.
East Bronx District 13 has historically lagged behind in affordable housing construction, according to a report by the New York Housing Conference
District 13 ranked 38 out of 51 districts for affordable housing creation, having produced just 484 units between 2014 and 2024. By contrast, Oswald Feliz’s Bronx district produced over 7,700 in that timeframe, and five Bronx districts, mostly in the South Bronx, ranked in the top ten.
But as Just Home garnered support from those wanting to increase affordable housing in a district that has lagged, it also faced fierce opposition from Morris Park residents, who testified to safety concerns and said housing for other vulnerable populations, such as veterans and seniors, should take priority over the formerly incarcerated.
Years ago, the debate came to a chaotic head in an October 2022 Community Board 11 hearing, during which Just Home supporters were shouted down, insulted and threatened.
While the temperature gradually cooled, Marmorato’s election to District 13 was largely spurred by her opposition to Just Home and other development initiatives.
Most recently, she has steadfastly opposed the proposed Bally’s casino-hotel complex, which will provide another kind of test of member deference when the Community Advisory Committee votes on Sept. 30. As with Just Home, other Bronx elected officials have expressed support for the development, over Marmorato’s objections.
Meanwhile, she indicated that the Just Home vote puts her at odds with colleagues over the very nature of their role.
“Public service is supposed to mean putting communities first. Instead, this vote showed self-interest over service, hypocrisy over honesty, and politics over democracy,” Marmorato’s statement said. “I will continue to fight for District 13, no matter how many times this Council fails to honor its own stated principles.”
Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
