Public testimony: Veronica Urovosky supports Fort Hamilton Mews

We have one person online that would like to testify, Veronica Urovosky.

You may begin.

Yes, my name is Veronica and I live in Brooklyn.

I'm here today because like the majority of renters in the city, including many people I personally know and love, I'm paying too much for housing.

So needless to say, I'm very much in favor of this project.

It will provide almost 90 affordable homes in one of the hardest neighborhoods in Brooklyn to build affordable homes.

I think I read somewhere that only five affordable units were built in the last 12 years in Bay Ridge.

That is kind of astounding.

That's almost 90 units more than the affordable units the current staples in a parking lot provide.

I'm also excited about the promise of a new grocery store.

Retro-Droves, maybe something else, who knows.

And the stormwater mitigation plan that would replace the flood-prone parking lot.

Overall, I think this project will be bringing over 290 badly needed housing units

at a time when our city is experiencing a dire housing crunch and where the residents of Bay Ridge specifically are finding it exceedingly difficult to afford to stay in this neighborhood.

And personally, I find it pretty disheartening that our representatives are using procedural shenanigans and excuses like the character of the neighborhood to delay approving much needed housing.

Economists overwhelmingly agree that even building just market rate housing reduces rent.

So it's disingenuous to claim that.

Building this project would make housing prices worse.

So I hope this project is approved now and not later.

And I hope that it helps alleviate this crunch even a tiny bit.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Veronica.