Residents of the Brooklyn affordable housing development Spring Creek Towers, also known Starrett City, met Wednesday night to hear details of a proposed sale of the complex, and to let lawmakers know their concerns. NY1's Lori Chung filed the following report.

Residents of Spring Creek Towers gathered to hear answers, worried that the possible sale of the affordable housing complex they call home will send rents soaring.

"I want to know what's going on," one resident said. "It's like you're taking my home from under me."

"Affordable housing means income-based housing, and that is where my main concern is," another told me.

A town hall meeting was held to discuss the fate of the complex once called Starrett City. It is the largest subsidized housing development in the country, where rent restrictions are tied to tenant incomes.

Those rules are proposed to remain in effect until 2039, but residents wonder if those protections will stay intact or if the $850 million deal paves the way for gentrification.

"Everybody's worried about what had happened to Stuyvesant Town," one woman said. "They took over and the rents started going up. People couldn't afford it, people left."

The potential buyer is a joint venture led by the Brooksville company, whose representative tried to address some concerns.

"We want to maintain, to the greatest degree possible, continuity with respect to the existing staff," the representative said. "We intend to maintain, to the highest standards possible, the maintenance."

Elected officials also tried to put residents at ease.

"We are not going to allow the gentrification steamroller to run over East New York," Congressman Hakeem Jeffries said. "It will not happen."

The sale would have to get both state and federal approval — a fact complicated because President Trump is a minority owner of the complex.

Jeffries is calling on the president to recuse himself from that process to make sure the residents' interests remain a priority.

"We also believe that his HUD Secretary, Ben Carson, and any political appointees at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, should recuse themselves," Jeffries said. "This decision should be made by career officials."

There are more than 5,800 apartments at the complex, housing 15,000 people. If it gets the required approvals needed, the deal could close early next year.