Feed

Affordable Housing or Lack Thereof

By Kim Velsey 6/10 6:35pm

Affordable Housing or Lack Thereof

Cuts to housing subsidies hit New York. (Bonile Bam/Getty Images)

Section 8 Cuts Threaten to Diminish Access to Affordable Housing

New York is a city beset by an affordable housing crisis—market forces are eliminating affordable units faster than the city can add them, even rents in the least-expensive neighborhoods are beyond the reach of low-income workers—and now, major cuts to Section 8 program threaten to further reduce low-income New Yorker’s access to affordable housing.

Federal sequestration will cut $120 million from the rental subsidy program, according to Crain’s. To deal with the cuts, government agencies that administer the housing vouchers may reduce the number issued this year by as many as 6,000; other cuts will come in the form of reduced subsidies, forcing tenants and Section 8 housing providers to pick up the slack. Read More

By Kim Velsey 5/22 4:07pm

Affordable Housing or Lack Thereof

A rendering of the Dattner Architects-designed building slated to rise at the site.

City Selects Developer For Affordable Housing Slated To Rise On Architectural Graveyard In Williamsburg

Fifty-five units of affordable housing may not do much to stem the tide of gentrification washing over Williamburg, but they will allow a not-insignificant number of low-income families to stay in the increasingly expensive neighborhood.

Today, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development announced that it has selected MDG Design and Construction and the North Brooklyn Development Corporation to build a mixed-use affordable housing development at 337 Berry Street, the site of a former Landmarks Preservation Commission warehouse. The development team was selected nearly a year after an RFP went out for the project, which will include 55 low-income units, ground-floor commercial space for a grocery store, community space for tenant services and an open space for use by future tenants. Read More

By Stephen Jacob Smith 4/25 12:52pm

Affordable Housing or Lack Thereof

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio unveiled his housing platform today in Williamsburg, where housing prices have nearly tripled since 2004.

Bill de Blasio Unveils Affordable Housing Plan: 190,000 Units, Legalized Granny Flats and More

Until now, Bill de Blasio’s housing platform has mainly consisted of sniping at frontrunner Christine Quinn. But no longer: this afternoon Mr. de Blasio announced measures he would take mayor to curb what he calls the “full-blown crisis” of affordable housing. (Old habits, though, do die hard: Mr. de Blasio did take another shot at Ms. Quinn, saying, “Letting the real estate industry keep calling all the shots with our affordable housing policy isn’t going to deliver what working people need”—an allusion to her tax credits-for-affordable housing plan, which seems cribbed right from REBNY and Steve Ross’s proposals back in 2011.)

Mr. de Blasio started out, as all candidates do, with a promise for the number of affordable housing units he’d create: 100,000 “new affordable units,” plus preservation for “nearly 90,000″ others. Read More

By Kim Velsey 4/24 4:06pm

Affordable Housing or Lack Thereof

Graduates will go on to build affordable housing in their communities. (Buildingskills.com)

NYCHA To Train Residents To Build Their Own Affordable Housing

The New York City Housing Authority has really taken the whole teaching a man to fish thing to heart. NYCHA  is getting a new construction workforce training program—launched by Building Skills NY in conjunction with Brooklyn Workforce Innovation and Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group—that will teach residents how to build affordable housing in their communities.

That’s one way to address the affordable housing crisis! Though to be fair, the focus is more on building job skills than on building affordable housing. And while graduates will be funneled into job placements with affordable housing developers, the program is primarily a job training program rather than a Habitat for Humanity-style sweat equity scheme. Read More

By Stephen Jacob Smith 2/14 5:20pm

Affordable Housing or Lack Thereof

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio unveiled his housing platform today in Williamsburg, where housing prices have nearly tripled since 2004.

De Blasio Blasts Quinn’s Affordable Housing Plan as ‘Multi-Billion Dollar Giveaway’ to Developers

New York City public advocate and Democratic mayoral candidate Bill De Blasio added his voice to a growing chorus of commentators (including The Observer) who have noted similarities between Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s affordable housing platform, announced in her State of the City address earlier this week, and a plan proposed by the real estate industry in 2011. The proposal would cap property taxes for whole buildings if they agreed to set aside a certain percentage of their units to let at below-market rate rents. Read More

By Stephen Jacob Smith 2/11 2:50pm

Affordable Housing or Lack Thereof

Christine Quinn's headline plan is for the city to borrow money to build 40,000 new middle-income apartments over the next decade

Speaker Quinn Vows to Keep Park Slope and Carroll Gardens from Becoming ‘Luxury’ In State of the City

In her 2013 State of the City speech, City Council Speaker and Democratic mayoral frontrunner Christine Quinn focused on housing affordability—namely middle-class housing.

Ms. Quinn’s headline proposal is to “build 40,000 new middle-income affordable apartments over ten years.” It’s unclear what definition of “middle-income” she would use, but the Middle Class Squeeze report that she released earlier today defines middle class as “households with incomes between 100 percent and 300 percent of area median income.” Read More

By Christopher Brennan 11/16/12 3:16pm

Affordable Housing or Lack Thereof

Paul Rodriguez of Picture the Homeless. (Christopher Brennan)

As Sandy Creates Thousands of New Homeless, Advocates Draw Attention to Those Suffering Before the Storm

The winds of Hurricane Sandy caused massive damage to the New York area when it made landfall at the end of October. But the gusts of the superstorm blew more than just debris, dislodging New Yorkers from their homes and into a constellation of already full shelters. Yet in spite of the issue of overcrowding both before or after the storm, there may actually be large amounts of space to house people in the city.

Hoping to capitalize on the renewed awareness of homelessness and the dire situation in the city’s shelters, advocacy group Picture the Homelesss and a number of its allies held a rally Friday morning in Harlem to draw new attention to its regular reports on vacant properties in the city. Picture the Homeless has long argued that landlords across the city have left properties vacant while they wait for property values and rents to rise. The practice, known as warehousing, is legal, but it robs the city of precious living space at the same time.

“If you were able to pull out the money for Sandy, you were able to pull out the money before Sandy,” Raul Rodriguez, an organizer with Picture the Homeless, declared, criticizing the city’s failure to capitalize on rundown properties. Read More

By Jonah Wolf 9/28/12 7:16pm

Affordable Housing or Lack Thereof

4 Photos

Livonia Living

East New York’s Livonia Commons: Affordable Housing Vision Gets Visual Aids

Usually, living down by the tracks is bad thing, but after looking at the renderings of an affordable apartment complex in East New York, all we could think was, “how can we sign up?”

Dunn Development Corp. will develop four buildings in East New York, the department of Housing Preservation and Development recently announced, an announcement that came with some lovely colored renderings of the project. The developments, collectively known as Livonia Commons, will include 270 new units of low-income housing as well as 11,000 square-feet of ground floor retail space. Read More

By Kim Velsey 7/16/12 6:51pm

Affordable Housing or Lack Thereof

Rejoice! Bed-Stuy gets a new affordable housing development.

Rents Are Rising, But At Least Bed-Stuy Has a New Affordable Housing Development

Late last week, a new 48-unit affordable housing development opened at 926 Madison Street in Bed-Stuy, Brownstoner reports—which is good news for residents in a once-rough neighborhood where the locals’ biggest fear is now likely rising rents.

Rents in the Brooklyn neighborhood went up 6.5 percent between April and May of this year; the neighborhood has seen steadily rising rents since the beginning of the year. Read More

By Jess Schiewe 6/25/12 4:12pm

Affordable Housing or Lack Thereof

You know that people care about something when they're willing to sit in sweltering heat for it.

Inwood Stability: City Saves Neglected Apartment Building with New Program and Private Partnership

Last Friday morning, Felix Guzman woke up early, grabbed his fishing pole, and headed over to the East River for some catch and release fun. For 40 years he has lived in the same building on Academy Street in Inwood and in that time he has “seen a lot.” So when he got back to his apartment around 11 am and saw that his street was teaming with newscasters, elected officials, cameramen, and local community members, he wasn’t surprised. They’d been there before. “It’s always been tough here,” Mr. Guzman said. “I’m glad they’re doing something about it.”

The building in question was 552 Academy Street, a crumbling 72-unit brick building located across the street from Mr. Guzman’s apartment. A year ago he had stood outside and watched as dozens of tenants dragged their belongings onto the sidewalk, confused and frightened and wondering where they would relocate to next.

The building, the city told them, was unsafe, which was why they had to vacate the premises. Although Mr. Guzman had never been inside, he heard rumors that at times the units lacked gas, running water, and electricity. “This is what happens when you get these slumlords and all they care about is the money,” Mr. Guzman said, referring to the building’s landlord, Rachel Arfa, whom the City blames for the hazardous conditions. Read More