Mayor Bloomberg has tapped a former deputy commissioner for the city’s top housing job, as he announced this morning that Rafael Cestero will be the new commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
Mr. Cestero, who left the city for the nonprofit Enterprise in 2007, takes the spot recently left vacant by Read More
The soaring real estate values of recent years helped push a net of more than 16,800 apartments out of rent stabilization and into the free market, according to a new city housing report, outpacing ambitious construction efforts for subsidized housing.
In all, the “2008 New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey” found, more than Read More
Shaun Donovan looked very much at ease during his Jan. 13 confirmation hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building. The 42-year-old leaned forward onto a green-clothed table in front of the Senate Banking Committee, eloquent and gracious in his answers, sharp and timely in his policy points, an apparent shoo-in to be secretary of Housing Read More
President-elect Obama has selected Shaun Donovan, the 42-year-old who leads the city’s housing agency, as his Secretary for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, a powerful position that traditionally has gone to the politically connected.
The appointment was announced in Mr. Obama’s weekly radio address this morning (video here).
Mr. Donovan, commissioner Read More
Mayor Bloomberg and Shaun Donovan, commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, today announced that the city’s 10-year plan [PDF] to build or preserve 165,000 units of below-market rate housing has hit is midpoint, with 82,500 units financed [press release here].
Among the stats the city highlighted was its strikingly low Read More
Last year was one of the busiest years for residential development in New York’s recent history, with permits issued for 31,918 privately owned housing units, according to data from the U.S. Census. The city’s departments of Housing Preservation and Development and of Buildings announced the numbers today, saying 2007 saw the second highest number of Read More
The city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development has scored a victory against Bronx landlord Hamid Khan, responsible for more than 2,000 housing violations at one property, as a judge sentenced him late last month to nine days in jail and ordered him to pay $156,000 in penalties, according to HPD. The city agency announced Read More
As the economic climate grows gloomier, the Bloomberg administration is predicting a drop in the amount of affordable housing to be produced in the coming years, according to figures in the latest Mayor’s Management Report, released yesterday. The lowered estimates, however, do not yet jeopardize the mayor’s ambitious plan to create 92,000 new affordable Read More
Three development teams submitted bids for the chance to buy the former Navy Brig site in Brooklyn for $1, according to the city’s Department of Housing, Preservation and Development. The catch is that of the approximately 400 housing units that will be built on the site, some 200 must be priced for low- and Read More
George gets into real estate
On Independence Day, the Times profiled ABC No Rio, an art collective that bought its Lower East Side building from the city for one (1) dollar. Upon raising enough money to renovate the building–after nearly a decade of punk rock matinees, art exhibitions, and various fundraisers to support Read More
