14 THE QUEENS COURIER • JULY 6, 2017 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Jamaica ‘Tree of Life’ is the neighborhood’s
largest aff ordable housing complex to date
BY EMILY DAVENPORT
edavenport@qns.com / @QNS
Construction has begun on a brand
new aff ordable housing development in
downtown Jamaica.
Th e mixed-use building going up on
164th Street, called Tree of Life, will
have 174 units available, with a mix of
studio, one, two, and three bedrooms,
including a superintendent’s unit. 12
stories high and includes over 15,000
square feet of commercial space, over
9,000 square feet of community facility
space, 64 parking spaces, and approximately
1,500 square feet of residential
amenity space including a fitness room
and community room.
Th e project offi cially broke ground on
June 9 during a special event with the
New York City Housing Development
Corporation (HDC), the Department of
Housing Preservation and Development
(HPD) and a number of representatives
and elected offi cials from Queens.
“Th e city is facing an aff ordability crisis
that requires us to harness all our
tools, tap all our partners, and engage
all our communities to fi nd long-term
aff ordable housing solutions that benefi
t both residents and neighborhoods,”
said HPD Commissioner Maria Torres-
Springer. “Tree of Life combines city
investment, innovative programs like
Voluntary Inclusionary Housing, and
vital federal resources to create 174
aff ordable homes – a third of which are
permanently aff ordable – in a passive
house development that will bring jobs
and services to the neighborhood.”
Financed under the HPD and HDC’s
Mix & Match program, the project
apartments will be available for families
with incomes ranging from $31,750
to $66,550 for an individual and from
$40,800 to $85,470 for a family of three.
Approximately 53 of the units available
will be permanently off ered to households
with maximum income limits of
$50,800 for an individual and $65,280
for a family of three under the City’s
Inclusionary Housing program.
Tree of Life will include a number of
energy effi cient qualities, including solar
panels and a co-gen system. Because of
Photo courtesy of the First Jamaica Community & Urban Development Corporation
its location in the Special Downtown
Jamaica District of Queens, the building
is nearby many modes of transportation.
In addition to servicing those in need
of aff ordable housing, the community
facility space at Tree of Life is anticipated
to include an education and training
center with a library and computer area,
conference room, and individual counseling
rooms that will be accessible to
the community.
“Once complete, the Tree of Life
building will be worthy of its name,
giving families of low and moderate
income’s the opportunity they need to
live the quality of life they deserve,”
said City Councilman I. Daneek Miller.
“With so much development taking
place in Jamaica, it has been a priority
for my offi ce to ensure we are building
for those who already call southeast
Queens home.”
For more information, visit https://
fj cudc.com/tree-of-life/.
Qns. Village
man pimped
2 teen girls
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
rpozarycki@qns.com / @robbpoz
Jurors convicted a Queens Village
man last week of forcing two teenage
girls into a life of prostitution, selling
their bodies for his own profi t over a
nearly year-long period, prosecutors
announced on Friday.
Ricardi (aka Dirty) Dumervil, 29,
was found guilty on June 29 of sex traffi
cking and second- and third-degree
counts of promoting prostitution. He
faces up to 50 years behind bars when
he is sentenced on July 27, according
to Queens District Attorney Richard
A. Brown.
“Th e defendant has been convicted
of inducing fear of physical harm
into two young women so that he
could treat them as chattel, commodities
to be sold to others for cash, which
he then pocketed for himself,” Brown
said in a statement on June 30. “Sex
traffi cking is a violent, degrading and
demeaning crime that will not be tolerated
in Queens.”
Prosecutors said Dumervil kept the
two girls, ages 18 and 19, at an undisclosed
location in Queens between
April 1, 2014, and March 7, 2015.
During that period, he threatened to
physically harm the two victims if they
did not engage in prostitution on his
behalf.
Both victims engaged in prostitution
with various individuals at the location
where they were held and other places
across Queens, sources familiar with
the investigation said. Th ey were then
forced to hand over the money they
received to Dumervil.
Pol presses on with Rockaway rail revival
BY ANTHONY GIUDICE
agiudice@ridgewoodtimes.com
@A_GiudiceReport
A lawmaker from the Rockaways has
secured two major victories in the fi ght to
get the unused Rockaway Beach Rail Line
(RBRL) up and running again to provide
transportation to thousands of Rockaway
residents.
Aft er a recent letter exchange with
MTA representatives, Assemblywoman
Stacey Pheff er Amato announced that she
was able to increase momentum on the
evaluation process of potentially reactivating
the RBRL.
Pheff er Amato was able to secure the
inclusion of specifi c criteria in the fi nal
report that are meant to better illustrate
the feasibility of the proposal, and that the
MTA, the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR),
and New York City Transit (NYCT) will
be jointly requesting and securing an outside
contractor to help conduct the evaluation,
putting all key agency stakeholders
on the same page and ensuring their
mutual investment in giving the proposal
a full and fair hearing, she said.
“Th is is a huge deal. Reactivating the
RBRL may be the best and most permanent
fi x for our transit issues,” Pheff er
Photo courtesy of Assemblywoman Stacey Pheff er Amato’s offi ce
Amato said. “We had a 40-minute commute
for eighty years, from 1880 to 1960.
But it was lengthened to an hour twenty
minutes, and now we’re eff ectively cut off
from large parts of the city. So fi xing that
is priority number one. And now, even
though the Rockaway Peninsula economy
is roaring back, there’s this narrative parroted
by some in city government that a
competing project idea to the QueensRail,
the QueensWay, is likely to materialize.
But the demand for real transit
never went away, and we think
Governor Cuomo’s call for a single
seat ride from JFK to Midtown
defi nitely is helping with momentum
for restoring the RBRL.”
Although the evaluation was
delayed from a June release to a
date this winter, Pheff er Amato
is glad that the study will fi nally
be done.
“We need to use this moment to
make real decisions that aff ect real
peoples’ lives,” she said. “Th at’s
what government is about – actually
improving daily life. Th e MTA,
the LIRR and NYCT are getting
that message from our advocacy
and the outpouring of demand
from the community, and, at long
last, they’re giving the RBRL a serious
look.”
Pheff er Amato also released a petition
called “South Queens Needs Transit,”
which is aimed at encouraging the three
agencies to do the evaluation quickly and
thoroughly, and to create a plan for reactivation
and present it to the community.
To read and sign the petition, visit http://
bit.ly/SouthQueensNeedsTransit.
