About Jacob Riis Houses

1 The Jacob Riis Houses are a public housing project managed by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) in the Alphabet City neighborhood of Manhattan. The project is located between Avenue D and FDR Drive, spanning two superblocks from 6th Street to 13th Street. The project consists of thirteen buildings, between six and 14 stories each, containing 1,191 apartment units. 1 The Riis Houses were completed on January 17, 1949 and named for photographer Jacob Riis, who exposed the living conditions of tenement dwellers on the Lower East Side. The housing project was designed by James Mackenzie, Sidney Strauss, and Walker & Gillette.

🌟 Notable People from Jacob Riis Houses

1. Adolfo Carrión Jr. 🏛️

Career: Politics / Government

17 Adolfo Carrión Jr. said his humble beginnings growing up in public housing inspired him to be in public service and help the Latino community. 20 “My parents came from Puerto Rico in the 1950s and moved into a tenement basement apartment in Williamsburg, then into NYCHA’s Jacob Riis Houses and HUD-assisted Haven Plaza on the Lower East Side, and then, with the help of an FHA mortgage, to our first home in the North Bronx.”

Carrión went on to have a remarkable career in public service:

• 18 He served one term as a member of the New York City Council, representing the 14th district.
• 18 He served for seven years as the borough president of the Bronx, for a year and five months as the first director of the White House Office of Urban Affairs in the Obama administration, and then for nearly two years as Regional Administrator for HUD’s New York and New Jersey Regional Office.
• 18 Carrión was appointed Commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development by Mayor Eric Adams on January 30, 2022.
• 18 On March 7, 2025, Carrión was appointed Deputy Mayor for Housing, Economic Development, and Workforce, effective March 14, 2025.

17 Carrión said he wants to pay it forward by giving every New Yorker a chance at a fair start.

2. Henry Fiol 🎶

Career: Salsa Music (Singer, Songwriter, Bandleader, Painter)

25 Henry Fiol, one of the greatest salsa singers, was born to a Puerto Rican father and Italian American mother and grew up in the Jacob Riis Houses on Avenue D. 29 Henry Fiol (born January 16, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter, bandleader and painter. He is known for his traditional approach to son cubano and other Cuban music styles, and he is considered a “cult favorite” among Latin music fans. 27 Henry Fiol began his musical career over thirty years ago, initially as a congo player and coro singer. In 1980, Fiol recorded two LP’s with SAR Records as a soloist, and was fortunate enough to score several number-one hits in Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Dominican Republic. He subsequently toured Latin America, doing numerous concerts and television appearances. 27 In 1983, he formed his own band, “Corazón”, and introduced his signature brass instrumentation of trumpet with tenor sax. Soon thereafter, he founded his own record company, Corazón Records, and began using the characteristic red-and-black stage clothing with the symbol of the heart. 25 This massive housing project is one of the only reasons that Latino culture still survives on the Lower East Side, keeping the white wave of gentrification from reaching all the way to the East River.

3. Zulay Velazquez ✊

Career: Community Activism / Tenant Advocacy

2 Zulay Velazquez is the founder of Concerned Tenants at Jacob Riis, and also Riis Houses’ new president elect. She became nationally recognized for leading the fight to keep the Riis Houses public and under Section 9 rather than shifting to private management. 2 Following the conclusion of a landmark vote, Jacob Riis Houses will stay public. NYCHA residents there have voted to remain in Section 9, instead of converting their public housing campus into a privately managed community under PACT.

4. Jeremy Del Rio & the Thrive Collective Founders 🎨

Career: Community Organizing / Youth Development

9 What we now call Thrive Collective started as an after-school and summer camp in NYCHA Jacob Riis Houses in 1996. Generation Xcel was co-founded by 13 teens from the Lower East Side and a then 21-year-old Jeremy Del Rio in this building on 10th Street at 152-154 Avenue D. While not traditional celebrities, the founding teens from Riis Houses created an organization that has grown into one of NYC’s most respected youth arts and development nonprofits. 9 This mural, designed and painted by Tats Cru artists BG183, Bio, and Nicer, with input from resident seniors, celebrates joy’s beautiful legacy in the neighborhood.

🎵 The Cultural Legacy of Riis Houses

The Jacob Riis Houses have played a pivotal role in preserving Latino culture on the Lower East Side, particularly in the salsa music scene. 25In the 1970s and early ’80s, the rich cultures of NYC’s racially and ethnically diverse working-class neighborhoods nurtured groundbreaking rap, salsa, and punk music. Gentrification did away with the social conditions that made those scenes possible.

Summary

The Jacob Riis Houses have a deep cultural legacy, particularly in the salsa music scene and Latino community activism on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. 5The residents of the Jacob Riis Houses are really what have shaped the development and made it unique. They took ownership of their homes and neighborhoods despite all the odds against them, thankful for what they had but always looking towards the future.

If you have any personal or community knowledge about other notable Riis Houses alumni, I’d love to hear about them! Many success stories from NYCHA developments go undocumented in mainstream media.

Jacob Riis Houses (also known as Riis Houses) is a NYCHA public housing development in Alphabet City on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, spanning buildings between East 6th–13th Streets, Avenue D, and FDR Drive. Built in 1949 and named after the social reformer and photographer Jacob Riis, it has housed many working-class and immigrant (especially Puerto Rican and Latino) families and fostered community activism, arts, and grassroots organizing.1

Here are the most notable figures strongly associated with growing up or being raised there, based on reliable sources:

Adolfo Carrión Jr. (born 1961) is a prominent politician and public official.
He grew up in the Jacob Riis Houses after his family relocated from a Williamsburg tenement. A Democrat who later became Republican and then Independent, he served as Bronx Borough President (2001–2009), the first Puerto Rican in the position. He ran for NYC Mayor in 2013, advised on urban policy in the Obama administration, and was appointed NYC Commissioner of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) under Mayor Eric Adams. His career focuses on housing policy, urban planning, and community development, often informed by his NYCHA roots.1

Hector Xavier Monsegur (“Sabu,” born 1983) is a well-known hacker and hacktivist.
Raised by his grandmother in a sixth-floor apartment in the Riis Houses, he became a central figure in the Anonymous collective and LulzSec around 2011, involved in major cyberattacks on governments and corporations. After his arrest, he cooperated with the FBI as an informant. His story—from public housing upbringing to high-profile cyber activism and its legal consequences—has made him a notable figure in discussions of hacking, cybersecurity, and digital activism.1

Rev. Frank Morales (born 1949) is an Episcopal priest, writer, and longtime housing activist.
Raised in the Riis Houses, he has been a key voice in the Lower East Side since the 1970s, involved in squatting movements, anti-poverty efforts, homelessness advocacy, and community organizing rooted in liberation theology. He remains active in fights for tenant rights and against displacement in NYC.1

Al Diaz is a pioneering street artist and graffiti writer.
He grew up in the Jacob Riis Houses on Avenue D and began writing graffiti as a young teen (known early as BOMB 1). In the late 1970s, he co-created the iconic SAMO© graffiti tag and conceptual art project with Jean-Michel Basquiat, a major influence on NYC street art, graffiti, and the downtown art scene. He continues as an active artist, often engaging with community and local history themes.2

Compared to some larger or more famous NYCHA developments, Riis Houses has produced fewer mainstream entertainment or sports celebrities but stands out for figures in politics, activism, hacking/tech underground, and visual/street arts. The Lower East Side environment historically supported creative and political energy. Local accounts and oral histories often highlight additional educators, community organizers, and unsung residents, but the above are the ones with the widest recognition beyond the immediate neighborhood.