Chinatown Pushes for Affordable Housing, Instead of World’s Tallest Jail
At a Monday rally in Chinatown, a coalition of elected officials, community leaders, and concerned residents announced an alternative to the controversial plan that has demolished the former Manhattan Detention Center (MDC) and seeks to erect a much larger jail in its place, as part of a broader project to close the City’s centralized detention facility on Rikers Island and replace it with four borough-based jails (one in each borough except Staten Island).
The alternate plan seeks to build affordable housing at the former site of MDC, while transferring the prison function to a now-shuttered federal jail, the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC), a few blocks away.
Jan Lee, a Chinatown community leader who is also one of the founders of Neighbors United Below Canal (NUBC), said, “the plan we unveiled today reflects what the community has been asking for all along: more affordable housing, and a real voice in what happens to our neighborhood. We’ve made it clear from the beginning – we understand the City’s goal to close Rikers and to place a borough-based jail in Manhattan. But that can’t come at the expense of our health, safety, or future. This proposal replaces the tallest jail in the world with hundreds of units of affordable housing and reimagines the empty Metropolitan Correctional Center through adaptive reuse.”
“Yes, there’s still uncertainty around the federal facility,” he continued, in a reference to the estimated $230 million in critical maintenance needs that led to the facility’s emergency closure in 2021. “But what’s certain is this: We now have local elected officials who are willing to work with us, not around us. That makes this proposal not just timely – it makes it necessary for moving the conversation forward.” (Also unclear is whether federal officials would consent to hand MCC over to the City, rather than resuming its operation as detention facility for prisoners held by the U.S. government.)
Among Lower Manhattan residents, the plan to demolish and rebuild MDC (which is officially priced at $3.7 billion, although skeptics predict it will likely cost many billions more) has become a flashpoint, largely because of the environmental and health hazards that years of demolition and construction could impose on the surrounding community. Once the project is complete (a benchmark originally slated for 2027, but now projected for 2032), critics also anticipate decades of crowding on local streets as thousands of staff and support personnel report to the new facility each day.
Borough President Mark Levine said, “the conditions on Rikers Island are unacceptable, and should shock the conscience of New Yorkers, and now the failures of the current and past administrations in carrying out the plan for borough-based jails have created a new set of challenges: an impossible timeline, capacity shortfall, budget overruns, and disrespect of local communities. While there are undoubtedly serious hurdles in front of this proposal, I am open to any idea, particularly one that includes housing, that speeds this process up while ensuring that local stakeholders and communities have meaningful opportunities to provide input in the future of their neighborhoods.”
State Assembly member Grace Lee said, “the Chinatown community has come forward with a clear and thoughtful vision, one that closes Rikers without destroying their neighborhood. I stand with them in calling for real community engagement, the relocation of the proposed jail to MCC, and the transformation of the current site into deeply affordable housing. The people who live here deserve a seat at the table, not to be sidelined while decisions are made about their future.”
City Council member Chris Marte said, “instead of moving forward with an over-budget, oversized, and behind-schedule mega-jail in the heart of Chinatown, we should prioritize building affordable housing that our City desperately needs. We can close Rikers Island without sacrificing Chinatown’s community, all while ensuring that we create more affordable homes for New Yorkers who need them most. The existing MCC building can be repurposed to meet the need for a smaller jail. Closing Rikers Island should not come at the expense of our neighborhoods.”
Lower Manhattan resident and former City Council member Kathryn Freed added, “Chinatown has had to deal with many broken promises from the city and has received very little of what it truly needs. This plan provides a brilliant solution – a great opportunity to bring desperately needed affordable housing to the Chinatown community, while using available, unoccupied space to help address the problems associated with Rikers Island.”
The NUBC alternate plan announced on Monday proposes to create 1,040 units of affordable housing at the MDC site, in a building 235 feet high, rather than the 335 feet for the planned jail. The affordable housing structure would occupy a footprint of 47,000 square feet, compared to the 72,000 square feet needed for the jail. Under the NUBC plan, the remaining space would be used for a new park and outdoor market.
Several days before NUBC’s June 2 announcement, Congressman Dan Goldman spoke at a Community Board 1 meeting and discussed the proposal to relocate the jail and use the current location for affordable housing. “The first step in pursuing that, which I committed to work on, is to press pause on the current plan. After some of the initial analysis is done, and before any of the digging actually begins, to wait for a new administration. Because nothing’s going to happen right now, with this administration. So there’s no point in trying to work out this arrangement, if we are even able to.”
Mayor Eric Adams recently said that he might be open to a different proposal, which would create a mental health facility at the site of the former MDC, while acknowledging that the City will be unable to close Rikers Island by the legally mandated deadline of 2027.
Local leaders have expressed frustration with the Mayor over the Chinatown jail plan for years, because of a 2021 promise made by then-candidate Eric Adams, who attended a community rally against the plan that autumn, and said, “I know how much this community has endured. Let’s stop the institutionalization of hate that we are seeing in government. We can do a better job. The problems we are facing can’t be solved with incarceration and the destruction of communities. So I am here with you, standing side by side. No new jail! No building up a jail at this location!”
Soon after taking office, however, Mr. Adams changed course, with a City Hall spokesman telling the Broadsheet in 2023, “this administration will always follow the law, and the law says the jails on Rikers Island must close on time. To follow the law and protect the safety of the community and all involved in this project, this work is proceeding. We have engaged deeply with the community every step of the way, and we are committed to continuing to work with them to limit the disruption of this project.”