Affordable Housing

The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and the American Institute of Architects New York (AIANY) announced on Tuesday the selection of five New York City-based firms as finalists in the Big Ideas for Small Lots NYC design competition for small-scale, urban infill housing. As 6sqft previously reported, the program was organized by HPD and AIANY as a way to address the challenges associated with the design and construction of affordable housing on 23 lots of underutilized city-owned land. First announced by the city last year, the program falls under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Housing New York 2.0 plan. The winning proposals were selected by a panel of nine jurors and evaluated on their design, replicability, and construction feasibility. The finalists will advance to the final stage of the program.
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Report says city needs 24,000 subsidized apartments to address record homelessness numbers

Photo via Wikimedia

May 1, 2019

Report says city needs 24,000 subsidized apartments to address record homelessness numbers

According to a new report titled "State of the Homeless 2019" by the Coalition for the Homeless, the number of New Yorkers sleeping in shelters each night is large enough to count as the state's ninth-largest city: Close to 64,000 people took refuge in shelters each night according to the report–a record high figure that fell only slightly in February. The report takes both Mayor Bill De Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo to task on the issue, AM New York reports, and advises that the city build at least 24,000 subsidized affordable units and set aside 6,000 units for homeless households as quickly as possible to keep the numbers from growing.
More from the report

City can open a homeless shelter on Billionaires’ Row, judge rules

Via Wikimedia

April 30, 2019

City can open a homeless shelter on Billionaires’ Row, judge rules

A judge on Monday approved the city's plan to open a homeless shelter near Manhattan's Billionaires' Row neighborhood. Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Alexander Tisch dismissed the lawsuit from the West 58th Street Coalition, a group of residents who claimed the shelter would have "an enormous impact on our densely populated, narrow, high-pedestrian-traffic street." The ruling comes more than a year after Mayor Bill de Blasio first announced plans to open a shelter for 140 single men at the converted Park Savoy hotel, located next to One57, a supertall with a penthouse that sold for $100 million in 2015.
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New 125th Street project will bring 300 affordable apartments to East Harlem

Rendering courtesy of S9 Architecture

April 26, 2019

New 125th Street project will bring 300 affordable apartments to East Harlem

Long in the works as part of the larger East 125th Street Development project, One East Harlem officially broke ground yesterday. Located at 201 East 125th Street, the 19-story building designed by S9 Architecture will rise on the corner of 125th Street and Third Avenue, bringing over 400 mixed-income apartments, nearly 300 of which will be affordable, 65,000 square feet of commercial space, 5,000 square feet of cultural facilities, and 10,000 square feet of public open space to the neighborhood. Developed by a consortium—Richman Group Development, Bridges Development Group, and Monadnock Development—One East Harlem is slated for completion in 2021.
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Early reports of market-rate towers coming to NYCHA sites on the Lower East Side and Chelsea

Image via Wiki Commons

April 25, 2019

Early reports of market-rate towers coming to NYCHA sites on the Lower East Side and Chelsea

During a meeting on Monday, NYCHA officials presented tenants of the LaGuardia Houses with a plan to bring more market-rate apartments to the Lower East Side complex. The revised proposal would see a 35- to 45-story tower rise, with up to 75 percent market-rate apartments, THE CITY reported. Felicia Cruickshank, president of LaGuardia’s Tenant Association, said that in addition to Extell’s One Manhattan Square and the three waterfront skyscrapers in Two Bridges, this tower is “just going to gentrify the whole community and change what the Lower East Side has always been.” Reports have also shown that officials are in the early planning stages of a similar mixed-income project at the Fulton Houses complex in Chelsea, leaving residents to fear displacement and being forgotten in the development process.
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18 middle-income apartments with Hudson River views available in Hell’s Kitchen, from $2,135/month

Photo courtesy of The Helux

April 24, 2019

18 middle-income apartments with Hudson River views available in Hell’s Kitchen, from $2,135/month

Photo courtesy of The Helux Applications are now open for 18 fully renovated units at 520 West 43rd Street in Midtown West. Located between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues, the 33-story building was built in 1998 and boasts Hudson River views and proximity to Port Authority Bus Terminal, Times Square, and Hudson Yards. Known as The Helux, the building's name is a combination of "Hell's Kitchen" and "Luxury." The building comes with a pretty amenities package and no shortage of transportation options. Qualifying New Yorkers earning 130 percent of the area median income can apply for the units, ranging from a $2,135/month studio to a $2,760/month two-bedroom.
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Affordable Housing

The Doe Fund is redeveloping a former army reserve center in the Bronx into affordable housing for veterans

Photo via Wiki Commons

April 24, 2019

The Doe Fund is redeveloping a former army reserve center in the Bronx into affordable housing for veterans

The Doe Fund has announced plans to develop 90 new units of affordable housing in the Bronx on the site of the former Joseph A. Muller Army Reserve Center at 555 Nereid Avenue in Wakefield. The New York City-based nonprofit organization acquired the long-dormant structure in 2013 and has since worked with Wakefield residents to create a redevelopment plan that responds to the community’s needs. As a result, the site will be converted into 90 studio apartments, 54 of which will be reserved for formerly homeless veterans.
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Affordable Housing

16 affordable units now available in new Greenpoint building on McCarren Park, rents from $1,114/month

Rendering of 848 Lorimer Street in Greenpoint (Image: Meshberg Group)

April 23, 2019

16 affordable units now available in new Greenpoint building on McCarren Park, rents from $1,114/month

A lottery offering 16 affordable apartments is now officially open at the newly-constructed mixed-use building at 848 Lorimer Street overlooking McCarren Park in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Qualifying New Yorkers earning between 80 and 130 percent of the area median income can apply, with rents ranging from a $1,125/month studio to a $2,684/month two-bedroom. The brick-and-glass building is six stories tall with 52 residential units total, and includes a street-level parking garage.
Fabulous amenities, this way

Affordable Housing

56 chances to live in an amenity-rich Crown Heights rental, from $1,168/month

Via 409 Eastern Parkway

April 23, 2019

56 chances to live in an amenity-rich Crown Heights rental, from $1,168/month

Applications are now being accepted for 56 middle-income apartments at a brand new luxury building in Crown Heights. Facing Brooklyn's historic thoroughfare, 409 Eastern Parkway sits just one block from bustling Franklin Avenue and two blocks from the Brooklyn Museum, Botanic Garden, and Prospect Park. Plus, the building offers residents more than 17,000 square feet of amenities, including a fitness center, pet spa, children's playroom, co-working spaces, landscaped roof with bocce ball courts, and more. Qualifying New Yorkers earning 80 and 120 percent of the area median income can apply for the units, ranging from a $1,168/month studio to a $2,759/month two-bedroom.
Find out if you qualify

Affordable Housing

Staten Island’s Bay Street Corridor rezoning proposal moves forward

Update 4/23/19: The City Planning Commission voted on Monday to approve the Bay Street Corridor rezoning plan, despite opposition from Staten Island Borough President Jimmy Oddo and local community groups, City Limits reported. As the plan now goes in front of the City Council, housing advocates will continue to push for the rezoning to include deeply affordable units. The City Planning Commission will vote Monday on the rezoning proposal for Staten Island's Bay Street Corridor, an area between Tompkinsville Park and Tappan Park. Ahead of the agency's vote, questions remain about the plan's affordable housing portion, expected to bring 1,800 new residential units to the area. According to a report from Clifford Michel of THE CITY, the rezoning sets aside affordable housing for middle-class professionals, allowing developers to build units for households earning as much as $127,000 per year for a family of three. Based on that income requirement, the "affordable" apartments would rent for more than $3,000 per month.
More details this way

Affordable Housing

April 17, 2019

144 mixed-income units up for grabs at new East Harlem building, from $328/month

Applications are now being accepted for 144 mixed-income apartments at a brand new East Harlem building. Developed by SKA Marin, the building at 1912 First Avenue, called The Gilbert on First, rises 16 stories and contains just over 150 apartments. Qualifying New Yorkers earning between $13,200 and $199,650 annually can apply for the apartments, which range from a $328/month studio to a $3,009/month three-bedroom.
Here's how to apply

Affordable Housing

Apply for 143 affordable units in East New York’s Spring Creek neighborhood, from $426/month

Rendering courtesy of Monadnock Development/ MHG Architects

April 16, 2019

Apply for 143 affordable units in East New York’s Spring Creek neighborhood, from $426/month

An affordable housing lottery launched on Tuesday for 143 units in Spring Creek, a neighborhood in East New York once known only for its landfills and undeveloped marshland. As part of a multi-phase, decades-long project by the city, the area has been slowly transforming into a community of mixed-income and mixed-use developments. The fourth phase of a development called Nehemiah Spring Creek is now accepting applications for studios, one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments, set aside for New Yorkers earning 30, 40, 50, 60, and 90 percent of the area median income. Apartments up for grabs range from a $426/month one-bedroom to a $1,660/month three-bedroom.
Find out if you qualify

Affordable Housing

200 spots open on waitlist for affordable units near Madison Square Park, from $1,400/month

Photo via Jeffery Zeldman on Flickr

April 15, 2019

200 spots open on waitlist for affordable units near Madison Square Park, from $1,400/month

One of the first luxury residential towers built in Nomad has reopened its affordable housing waitlist. Instrata Nomad, located a few blocks north of Madison Square Park at 10 East 29th Street, was constructed in 1999 during the neighborhood's resurgence. Qualifying New Yorkers earning 80 percent of the area median income can apply to be placed on the waitlist for the units, which include $1,404/month studios and $1,485/month one-bedrooms.
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Affordable Housing

To avoid rent burden in Manhattan and Brooklyn, you’d have to live in a 300 square foot space

Image via Flickr cc

April 12, 2019

To avoid rent burden in Manhattan and Brooklyn, you’d have to live in a 300 square foot space

Renting remains an increasingly popular choice in cities throughout the country, where on-the-go millennials with mobile jobs and lifestyles prefer to remain untethered to a specific location. But often, making rent doesn’t equate with staying on budget or having the amount of space you really need. A new study by RENTCafe looks into the issue of rent burden, asking how much space a typical income would get you if you limited your rent to no more than 30% of your income. Their findings show that in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Boston spending 30% of your income on rent means you’d have to live in less than 300 square feet of space.
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Bronx Commons via Danois

April 12, 2019

South Bronx development with new music hall opens affordable housing lottery, units from $328/month

A lottery has officially opened for 288 newly-constructed units at the Bronx Commons development at 443 East 162 Street in the Melrose neighborhood in the South Bronx. In addition to the affordable apartments, the mixed-use development offers retail, a landscaped public plaza–and the 14,000 square foot, 250-seat Bronx Music Hall, a concert hall with rehearsal spaces and an outdoor performance and recreational space among other amenities.
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Affordable Housing

City’s plans to allocate $500M to affordable senior housing not progressing as anticipated

Image via Wikimedia Commons

April 11, 2019

City’s plans to allocate $500M to affordable senior housing not progressing as anticipated

Last June, the city committed $500 million toward a plan to construct 1,000 new apartments for low-income senior citizens, but now almost a year later those plans are moving forward much slower than expected, Politico reports. The plan had identified six potential sites—two at New York City Housing Authority properties Kingsborough Houses in Brooklyn and Morris Houses in the Bronx, and four on other city-owned lots—but so far the city has only requested developer proposals for one of those sites.
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Archdiocese of New York reveals new affordable housing on the site of a former Bronx church

Photo courtesy of Magnusson Architecture + Planning

April 9, 2019

Archdiocese of New York reveals new affordable housing on the site of a former Bronx church

Magnusson Architecture + Planning (MAP) unveiled a new, mid-rise building known as St. Augustine Terrace that will provide 112 units of affordable housing for low-income families in the Bronx. The project was commissioned by the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York and is the first building in 50 years to be built on the site of a former church, what used to be St. Augustine’s Church in the Morrisania neighborhood of the Bronx.
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1,200-unit Hunters Point development breaks ground and reveals new looks

New rendering by ODA Architects for TF Cornerstone

April 5, 2019

1,200-unit Hunters Point development breaks ground and reveals new looks

Developer TF Cornerstone officially broke ground Friday on its mixed-use, affordable housing development in Long Island City, a plan that began nearly six years prior. The project, which consists of 1,194 new apartments across two buildings on Center Boulevard, falls under the city's redevelopment of Hunter's Point South, a proposal with the goal of bringing 5,000 units of new housing to the area first backed by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. In addition to the residences, the project includes construction of a community center, local retail, a new public park designed by Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects, and a K-8 school. A pair of new renderings highlights the open space planned between the new towers.
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235-unit affordable building with farm and fresh food market coming to Atlantic Avenue in Bed-Stuy

Rendering of 1921 Atlantic Avenue via Dabar Development Partners.

April 4, 2019

235-unit affordable building with farm and fresh food market coming to Atlantic Avenue in Bed-Stuy

On March 27 the City Planning Commission voted unanimously to approve an application for a 14-story affordable development that will bring 235 residential units to 1921 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, New York Law School's CityLand reports. The mixed-use project is funded by private developers Dabar Development Partners and Thorobird in partnership with a program run by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development that creates affordable housing and set-asides for the formerly homeless. The proposed project, which will be located on city-owned vacant land and three adjacent private lots, will feature a community facility run by Oko Farms and NHS as well as a fresh food grocery store.
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Affordable Housing

Find affordable NYC apartments you actually qualify for with this new tool

Via Creative Commons

April 4, 2019

Find affordable NYC apartments you actually qualify for with this new tool

Apartment hunting in New York City is not easy. Figuring out who qualifies for the city's hundreds of income-restricted units (what even is AMI?) is another challenge entirely. In an attempt to streamline the process of finding affordable housing lotteries, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development this week unveiled a new tool that allows users to search by borough, household size, and income to find lotteries currently accepting applications.
Explore the tool

City files plans for 174 affordable apartments at Inwood library site

Renderings courtesy of Fogarty Finger Architecture and Andrew Berman Architect

April 2, 2019

City files plans for 174 affordable apartments at Inwood library site

The city this week filed plans with the Department of Buildings for the redevelopment of Inwood's New York Public Library branch, as first reported by Patch. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development revealed last March plans to transform the current site into a new 14-story residential building with a three-level library at its base. Above the new state-of-the-art library, there will be 174 permanently affordable apartments, designated for households with incomes at or below 60 percent of the area median income.
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Renderings courtesy of Citi Habitats New Developments

March 28, 2019

Eliot Spitzer’s Williamsburg-waterfront development opens lottery for 121 low-income units

By Dana Schulz

Back in June, an affordable housing lottery launched for 65 apartments at one of Spitzer Enterprises’ trio of rental buildings along the South Williamsburg waterfront known as 420 Kent. These apartments were located in the northernmost of the ODA-designed glassy towers. Now, a second lottery has come online (20 percent of the development's 857 units are affordable) for 121 low-income apartments at the southern piece of the complex. These residences are reserved for households earning 60 percent of the area median income and range from $867/month studios to $1,123/month two-bedrooms.
Find out if you qualify

Advocates credit new ‘Right to Counsel’ law with large drop in evictions

Via Flickr

March 27, 2019

Advocates credit new ‘Right to Counsel’ law with large drop in evictions

As 6sqft previously reported, in August of 2017, the city passed a Right to Counsel law which provides free legal help to low-income tenants facing eviction. In its first year the law, which will eventually guarantee representation in housing court to all low-income tenants, provided free legal services to more than 87,000 New Yorkers, and 21,955 New Yorkers threatened by eviction were able to stay in their homes. A new analysis released this week, conducted by the Community Service Society, shows that the decline in evictions happened more than five times faster in zip codes where the Right to Counsel law is currently in effect than in similar zip codes where the law is not in effect.
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Lottery opens for 149 units at amenity-packed new construction in the Bronx, from $462 a month

Rendering courtesy of The Wilfrid

March 21, 2019

Lottery opens for 149 units at amenity-packed new construction in the Bronx, from $462 a month