Starrett City photo via Matt Green on Flickr, President Trump photo via Wikimedia

As he proposes funding cuts to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s subsidized housing programs, President Donald Trump is set to gain millions of dollars from the sale of an affordable housing complex in East New York, best known as Starrett City. Investors, including Trump who owns a 4 percent stake in the development, sold the 46-building complex to two real estate firms for $906 million, ABC News reported Tuesday. Trump is set to profit about $36 million from the sale (an amount which could drop after mortgage costs and transfer taxes). Home to roughly 15,000 residents across 145 acres, Starrett City is the largest federally subsidized housing project in the country.

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Rendering via Dattner Architects

A mixed-use development will bring 1,165 fully-affordable units to the Brooklyn neighborhood of East New York, an evolving community in need of new and preserved housing. Dattner Architects released this week new renderings of the development, dubbed Atlantic Chestnut after the two streets it will face (h/t CityRealty). The complex, which will include three 14-story buildings, sits on 4.5 acres and measures over a million square feet. The three buildings will be completed in successive phases, with the first scheduled to wrap up in 2020, the second in 2021 and the third in 2022.

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Image: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office

An announcement Tuesday by the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) gave lower-income New Yorkers lots to look forward to–literally. HPD Commissioner Maria Torres-Springer announced that nine development teams would be creating 490 affordable apartments and homeownership opportunities on 87 vacant lots through the department’s New Infill Homeownership Opportunities Program (NIHOP) and Neighborhood Construction Program (NCP). The programs were designed specifically to unlock the potential of vacant lots long considered too small or irregular for traditional housing with innovative smaller homes, and develop more affordable housing on lots long used for parking at existing housing complexes. This latest round of development is the third and final in a series: The program has already seen the construction of over 600 affordable homes on 81 lots.

‘No site has gone overlooked’

Photo courtesy of Airbnb

Airbnb is responsible for the loss of between 7,000 and 13,500 long-term rental units in New York City while increasing the median long-term rent in the city by $380 a year, says a new report from McGill University. The study, commissioned by the union Hotel Trades Council, also found 87 percent of entire-home reservations are considered illegal under state law (h/t Politico NY). Mayor Bill de Blasio last year announced his plan to expand the city’s Office of Special Enforcement to crack down on illegal short-term rentals; it is illegal for NYC landlords to rent entire apartments for fewer than 30 days.

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Rendering of Edwin’s Place via Robert AM Stern Architects

The New York City Planning Commission on Wednesday unanimously approved a proposal for 125 affordable units designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects at 3 Livonia Avenue in Brownsville. The proposed Brooklyn development, called Edwin’s Place, would feature an eight-story building with 69 one-, two-, and three-bedroom units and 56 studios. Edwin’s Place is being developed by nonprofit partners Breaking Ground and the African American Planning Commission, Inc. The proposal, which won approval from Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and Community Board 16, will move on to the City Council for a final review.

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Four years ago, the Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation filed plans for a mixed-use building at 2501 Pitkin Avenue in East New York. The seven-story building known as the Pitkin Berriman Apartments has more than 3,000 square feet of street-level retail space that includes a grocery store, outdoor spaces such as a rear yard patio, playground, and garden, and affordable rentals. Those below-market-rate apartments are now available to low- and middle-income New Yorkers earning 40, 50, or 60 percent of the area median income through the city’s housing lottery. The 47 available units range from $558/month one-bedrooms to $1,224/month three-bedrooms.

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Starrett City photo via Matt Green on Flickr, President Trump photo via Wikimedia

The owners of Starrett City, the largest federally subsidized housing project in the country, recently announced they found a buyer for the $850 million Brooklyn development. Located in East New York, Starrett City sits on 145 acres and includes 5,881 affordable apartments for 15,000 residents. As the New York Times reported, President Donald Trump partially owns the housing development and will benefit from the sale of the property. Since the sale requires federal approval from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and state officials, this puts the president on both sides of the agreement, creating a potential conflict of interest for him.

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428 Saratoga Avenue, courtesy of Dattner Architects

Back in April of 2016, 6sqft shared the first affordable housing lottery to come online at the Dattner Architects-designed Prospect Plaza. Located in the Brownsville section of East New York–which has seen a slew of new below-market rate housing after a controversial rezoning–the 4.5-acre development will include a total of 364 units of of affordable and public housing, a 22,000-square-foot supermarket, 12,000-square-foot community facility, and a rooftop greenhouse. As of today, New Yorkers earning 40, 50, and 60 percent of the area median income can apply for 107 of these apartments at 428 Saratoga Avenue, ranging from $558/month one-bedrooms to $1,224/month three-bedrooms.

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Rendering of Stone House via Urban Architecture Initiatives

Construction began in 2015 for the Stone House at 91 Junius Street, a six-story, 161-unit building on the border of Brownsville and East New York. The supportive housing initiative comes via nonprofit Win, the largest provider of shelter for homeless families in New York City, who run two shelters just to the north of this site, according to CityRealty. The Stone House will reserve 96 units for homeless families and 64 for low-income households earning 50 or 60 percent of the area media income. The latter group has now become available through the city’s affordable housing lottery, with apartments ranging from $670/month studios to $1,224 three-bedrooms, all of which have access to the building’s offerings such as ground-floor retail, on-site laundry, a community room, outdoor playground, and on-site social services.

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Governor Cuomo announced a $1.4 billion initiative last week to bring resources like health care services and new jobs to Central Brooklyn. According to the governor, the plan, called “Vital Brooklyn,” will bring 7,600 jobs and more than 3,000 new affordable housing units to Brownsville, East New York, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights. And while Cuomo’s administration found these neighborhoods to be some of the most disadvantaged in the state, residents worry about the possible gentrification and displacement effects (h/t NY Times).

Learn more about Vital Brooklyn here