Council Approves Bronx Just Home Over Adams' Objections

The City Council approved the Just Home plan in a 36-9 vote to create 83 supportive and affordable apartments on the Jacobi Hospital campus in Morris Park, converting a vacant building into 58 specialized supportive units for formerly incarcerated New Yorkers with serious health needs and 25 affordable apartments to be operated by the Fortune Society. Mayor Eric Adams — who had previously backed the plan — abruptly withdrew support and his first deputy, Randy Mastro, sent a late letter urging the Council to deem the application withdrawn and proposing moving the Just Home component to a Brooklyn site near Broadway Junction. Council leaders and Speaker Adrienne Adams rejected that intervention as legally irrelevant, noting NYC Health + Hospitals’ board had authorized the lease, and moved ahead despite local opposition and a rare break from deferring to the district’s councilmember, Kristy Marmorato. The Adams administration says the Council’s authorization is nonbinding and will pursue alternative sites, setting up a likely legal and political clash as the developer seeks to begin preparations.