The John Haynes Holmes Towers is a

public housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, def ...

project for low income residents of the Yorkville section of the

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the wes ...

located just south of the neighborhood's northern limit at 96th Street, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, United States. The neighboring

Isaacs Houses The Stanley M. Isaacs Houses (or Isaacs Houses) is a public housing project for those of low-to-moderate incomes located just south of 96th street in the Manhattan neighborhood of Yorkville. The Isaacs Houses and the Holmes Towers borders East Ha ...

and the Holmes Towers border

East Harlem East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem or and historically known as Italian Harlem, is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City, roughly encompassing the area north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, F ...

, which has the second highest concentration of public housing in the United States. The two public housing buildings, designed by Architects Eggers and Higgins, were completed in 1969, are 25 stories tall and contain 537 apartments. The project is located between 92nd and 93rd Streets from 1st Avenue to

York Avenue York Avenue and Sutton Place are the names of a relatively short north-south thoroughfare in the Yorkville, Manhattan, Yorkville, Lenox Hill, and Sutton Place neighborhoods of the East Side (Manhattan), East Side of Manhattan, in New York City. ...

and the

FDR Drive The Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive, commonly called the FDR Drive for short, is a limited-access parkway on the east side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It starts near South and Broad Streets, just north of the Battery Park ...

. The development was named for the founder of the Community Church of New York.

John Haynes Holmes John Haynes Holmes (November 29, 1879 – April 3, 1964) was an American Unitarian minister, pacifist, and co-founder of the NAACP and the ACLU. He is noted for his anti-war activism. Early life Holmes was born in Philadelphia on November 2 ...

was known as a pacifist, social organizer, and

social justice Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fu ...

pioneer.

History

As of 1973, the Towers were described as being home to white, elderly residents. 60 percent of the apartments in Holmes Towers are set aside for tenants over the age of 62. The

projects are located just north of the Holmes Towers. Both developments are considered one complex totaling 5 buildings having the same Development Management Office managed by

New York City Housing Authority The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is a public development corporation which provides public housing in New York City, and is the largest public housing authority in North America. Created in 1934 as the first agency of its kind in the U ...

. They represent the only public housing on the Upper East Side. Both housing projects, as a whole, have been designated a "high crime zone" by the

New York City Police Department The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...

's 19th precinct. Crime, however, is considered to be relatively minimal compared to the projects further north. In 2018, the Holmes Towers along with Isaacs Houses and Robbins Plaza ranked the worst in the nation after federal inspections by the

United States Department of Housing and Urban Development The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It administers federal housing and urban development laws. It is headed by the Secretary of Housing and Urb ...

Public private partnership pilot

In 2015 it was announced that the complex's playground would be razed for a new mixed-use building under New York's NextGen program to help meet the capital needs of NYCHA. The 47-story tower was intended to be half affordable housing and half market rate housing with the lower-income tenants on the lower floors. Holmes Towers residents decried the plan, citing the lack of sunlight would lower their quality of life and lacked input in the plans, later staging a protest. In order to build the towers, property developer and de Blasio donor Fetner Properties would lease the land from NYCHA for $25 million for 99-years, pocketing all rent, qualifying for $13 million in subsidies, and paying no property taxes. In 2019, Manhattan Borough President

Gale Brewer Gale Arnot Brewer (born September 6, 1951) is an American Democratic politician from the state of New York who has represented the 6th New York City Council District since January 2022, a position she previously held from 2002 to 2013. From Janu ...

sued Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYCHA to block the new tower. The lawsuit accused of de Blasio of trying to use his power to push the towers through illegally by skirting zoning laws and not having the project go through

Uniform Land Use Review Procedure Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) is a process mandated by the 1975 revision of the New York City Charter that is invoked when a proposed development will affect certain legal protections afforded to the existing area and/or its inhabitan ...

(ULURP). NYCHA withdrew the plan in 2019.

References

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External links

Emporis entry
Public housing in Manhattan Residential skyscrapers in Manhattan Buildings and structures completed in 1969 Twin towers Upper East Side

History

Public private partnership pilot

See also

References

External links