I grew up two blocks from where the 145 Project is going up on Lenox Avenue. So when Defend Harlem held a press conference at City Hall last week demanding the Mamdani administration answer for its affordability promises, I went.
The 145 Project is a thousand-unit development coming to 145th and Lenox. Roughly 30% of those units are earmarked for affordable housing — calculated using an AMI formula that allows someone earning nearly $100,000 a year to qualify. Meanwhile, native Harlemites make $30,000 to $50,000 a year. They’re competing for the same units.
One question kept coming up: affordable for who?
