Affordable Housing

As of today, qualifying New Yorkers can apply for 16 newly renovated, affordable apartments in the Tremont section of the Bronx. The units at 565 East 178th Street and 2089-91 Arthur Avenue--which are right near Tremont Park and just a short walk to the Bronx Park and Zoo--are available to those earning 50 to 60 percent of the area median income, ranging from $716/month studios to $1,292/month three-bedrooms.
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Affordable Housing

April 12, 2017

Astoria, Morningside Heights and Bay Ridge have highest turnover of rent-stabilized apartments

Scoring a rent-stabilized apartment is a big win in New York City, as these regulated pads usually offer rent at below-market rates and provide tenants more protections against landlords. While more than 925,000 rent-stabilized apartments still exist in the city, these units turn over at a faster rate in certain neighborhoods than others, and their availability continues to dwindle (h/t WYNC). According to a new report by the city’s Independent Budget Office (IBO), the neighborhoods of Astoria, Morningside Heights and Bay Ridge all have high concentrations of rent-regulated housing built prior to 1974 and therefore, higher rates of turnover compared to other parts of the city.
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April 10, 2017

Lotto opens for Bushwick church conversion, 20 units available from $822/month

It's been two years since Cayuga Capital's "horizontal addition" to the former St. Mark’s Lutheran School and Evangelical Church in Bushwick topped out, and now the 20 affordable apartments at the site are up for grabs through the city's housing lottery. The new, seven-story structure, along with the preserved 1890 Victorian Gothic church, and four-story former school building in between, will offer 99 rentals in total and have been dubbed The Saint Marks. The below-market rate units range from an $822/month studio to $1,071/month two-bedrooms, available to individuals earning 60 percent of the area median income.
Find out if you qualify

Affordable Housing

April 7, 2017

Kwong Von Glinow’s new prototype for affordable housing can be stacked to fit any lot size

The first place winners of the New York Affordable Housing Challenge, an architectural competition run by Bee Breeders, have been announced. Kwong Von Glinow Design Office received first prize for their entry “The Table Top,” a modular system that aggregates and stacks to provide density and diversity in a city as varied as New York. Designed as a prototype for affordable housing in New York City, the flexible system could accommodate the city's wide range of lot sizes and is adaptable to a variety of unit combinations for diverse types of residents. With an affordable housing crisis abetting an increasingly socially divided city with the majority of its residents spending over half of their annual income on rent, the project speaks to Mayor de Blasio’s emphasis on the dire need to create more affordable housing at both new and redeveloped existing sites.
Find out more about this flexible, scalable design for living

April 5, 2017

Habitat for Humanity will build 48 affordable homes for New Yorkers

In New York City, and the rest of the country, it's becoming increasingly difficult to find affordable housing. To combat this, the Habitat for Humanity NYC announced a plan to build affordable houses for buyers in Brooklyn and Queens. The organization, aimed at constructing quality housing for families in need, will bring 48 units of affordable homes to these boroughs by redeveloping abandoned or foreclosed properties. Since most of these homes have been left vacant for decades, many are run-down and have negatively impacted the surrounding neighborhoods. As Brick Underground learned, the city’s Housing Authority first acquired these properties and then sold them to Habitat for Humanity at $1 each.
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Massive high-rise complex with 900 apartments, retail, offices and schools coming to Downtown Brooklyn

View south down Flatbush Avenue

April 4, 2017

Massive high-rise complex with 900 apartments, retail, offices and schools coming to Downtown Brooklyn

Alloy Development announced plans to build a pair of towers at 80 Flatbush Avenue, a 61,000-square-foot parcel of land between Flatbush Avenue, Schermerhorn Street, Third Avenue and State Street. The developer–who, with the Department of Education, owns the land–has been selected by the city’s Educational Construction Fund to build the mixed-use complex as part of the redevelopment of the Khalil Gibran International Academy, which will move into one of the two new school buildings that will be part of the project. The second of the two will be a 350-seat elementary school. The project will also offer 900 apartments (200 of which will be affordable), a 15,000-square-foot cultural facility, 200,000 square feet of office space and 40,000 square feet of retail space.
Find out more about what's coming to the neighborhood

Queens Astoria Cove waterfront site on the market for $350 million ahead of expected 421-a renewal

Image courtesy of STUDIO V Architecture

April 3, 2017

Queens Astoria Cove waterfront site on the market for $350 million ahead of expected 421-a renewal

A 2.2 million-square-foot mixed-use development site known as Astoria Cove, on nearly nine acres along the East River in Astoria, is seeking a buyer, asking $350 million, Crain's reports. The site hit the market in mid-March in anticipation of the reinstatement of the 421-a affordable housing tax credit program that had languished since its expiration over a year ago amid debates between the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) and unions on whether to require higher wages in certain cases. Alma Realty Corp. hired Cushman & Wakefield investment company to market the site; according to sales executive Bob Knakal, "We wouldn't have hit the market with Astoria Cove in the past 16 months because of the uncertainty around 421-a, but there's been a sense of optimism in recent weeks that 421-a will be back and with it, the land market will strengthen."
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March 27, 2017

Eight chances to live in a new East Williamsburg building, from $985/month

A state-of-the-art fitness center, yoga room, roof deck with cabanas, designer interiors, and a prime East Williamsburg location just a few blocks from the G, M, J, and L trains--this is all up for grabs for eight qualifying New Yorkers at 73 Montrose Avenue through the city's affordable housing lottery as of today. Those earning 60 percent of the area media income can apply for $985/month one-bedrooms and $1,114/month two-bedrooms.
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Affordable Housing

March 24, 2017

432 Park would have generated $30M for affordable housing with de Blasio’s mansion tax

Outside of 432 Park Avenue, Mayor de Blasio held a press conference on Thursday to discuss his mansion tax. The proposal calls for a 2.5 percent surcharge on sales of city homes valued at $2 million or more, which would in turn fund affordable housing for 25,000 senior citizens. De Blasio fittingly positioned himself outside 432 Park because, according to the city, if the proposed tax had been passed, this residence alone would have generated $30.2 million since 2015 in support of housing for low-income seniors. "And that would have been based--and this is stunning to me--on the sale of just 62 condominiums. But it would have meant enough money to subsidize affordable housing for 2,000 seniors," he said.
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New renderings revealed for NYCHA’s raised earth Red Hook Houses by KPF

When Superstorm Sandy hit the community of Red Hook, thousands of residents were left without power and basic necessities for over two weeks. The neighborhood’s infrastructure suffered substantial damage, with almost all basement mechanical rooms destroyed. In an effort to rebuild Brooklyn’s largest housing development, Red Hook Houses, post-Sandy, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) commissioned a project by architecture firm Kohn Pederson Fox (KPF). Their “Lily Pad” design includes installing 14 “utility pods” that deliver heat and electricity to each building, as well as creating raised earth mounds to act as a flood barrier (h/t Archpaper).
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March 24, 2017

Apply for 25 units at new affordable/supportive housing project in Brownsville, from $876/month

The Van Dyke Houses in Brownsville are a huge NYCHA compex, consisting of 24 buildings. Recently, a $56 million public/private investment went towards constructing the first new development here in decades, a 100-unit supportive and affordable housing building designed by Dattner Architects for a vacant parking lot on the site. Of these apartments, 45 will be leased to NYCHA tenants through a site-based waiting list, 30 to formerly homeless families, and 25 to those earning 60 percent of the area median income. This last group is now available through the city's housing lottery for $876/month one-bedrooms and $1,058/month two-bedrooms.
Find out if you qualify here

Affordable Housing

Comptroller Scott Stringer lays out plan for NYC to invest in its seniors

Photo via Gary Knight/Flickr

March 22, 2017

Comptroller Scott Stringer lays out plan for NYC to invest in its seniors

Photo via Gary Knight/Flickr Like many cities across the country, New York City’s population is getting older. Today, more than 1.1 million adults over 65, nearly 13 percent of the city’s total population, live in the five boroughs, a number which is expected to rise to over 1.4 million by 2040. In response to both this growth and the Trump administration’s budget cuts to beneficial senior programs like Medicaid and Medicare, City Comptroller Scott Stringer released a new report detailing policies that invest in the city’s seniors (h/t Metro NY).
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Bronx Commons via Danois

March 20, 2017

Senior musicians may lose affordable housing at Bronx Commons

The $160 million Bronx Commons mixed-use development, located in the borough's Melrose neighborhood, broke ground in January. When complete, it will combine affordable housing, retail, landscaped public space, and a 300-seat music and arts venue known as Bronx Music Hall. As 6sqft previously reported, the Hall was envisioned as a way to celebrate and revitalize "the deeply rooted history of cutting edge Bronx music," which nonprofit developers WHEDco and BFC Partners also hoped to address by setting aside 15 percent of the 305 below-market rate apartments for older musicians. But as the Times explains, despite the South Bronx's past as a hub for jazz and doo-wop music venues and sidemen, the city says this may be in violation of fair housing laws that prohibit preferences based on age or race.
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March 20, 2017

Three chances to live in the Bronx’s Morrisania neighborhood for $1,230/month

New Yorkers earning 80 percent of the area median income can apply for three newly constructed units at 1319A and 1319B Prospect Avenue in the Morrisania section of the Bronx. The $1,230/month one-bedrooms are located in a 16-unit, two-building project in a leafy residential area not far from the 2 and 5 trains.
See the income requirements

Affordable Housing

‘Paris-on-the-Gowanus’ rental launches affordable housing lottery, units from $833/month

363 Bond Street, via Lightstone Group

March 20, 2017

‘Paris-on-the-Gowanus’ rental launches affordable housing lottery, units from $833/month

When the Lightstone Group revealed their two-building, 700-unit, $350 million rental project at 363-365 Bond Street, right on the banks of the notoriously toxic Gowanus Canal, president Mitchell Hochberg said it was inspired by a residential project in the Canal Saint-Martin neighborhood in Paris that helped create a “newly hip atmosphere” near a similarly polluted waterway. Despite the area's Superfund status, the promise of living in a trendy, up-and-coming area surely appealed to many; when the lottery opened for the 86 affordable units at #365, nearly 60,000 people applied. Now, the lottery is opening for the 54 below-market rate apartments at the under-construction #363, ranging from $833/month studios to $1,082/two-bedrooms, available to those earning 60 percent of the area median income.
Find out if you qualify

Affordable Housing

NYCHA’s open space development plans move ahead with affordable senior housing in the South Bronx

Rendering of Mill Brook Terrace courtesy of NYCHA

March 15, 2017

NYCHA’s open space development plans move ahead with affordable senior housing in the South Bronx

As part of the New York City Housing Authority’s NextGen initiative--the controversial policy of partnering with private companies to develop housing on open space in existing public housing projects--an affordable senior development is coming to the South Bronx. As reported by NY Yimby, Mill Brook Terrace in Mott Haven will be a nine-story, 169-unit building at 570 East 137th Street and will be set aside for seniors who earn no more than 50 percent of the area media income, or less than $36,250. Designed by Perkins Eastman Architects, the building will include a 9,000-square-foot senior center on the ground floor, which will include a commercial kitchen, community space, activity room and an outdoor garden.
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March 15, 2017

Governor Cuomo’s $1.4B Central Brooklyn plan stokes gentrification debate

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

March 14, 2017

Eight chances to live in East Williamsburg from $1,020/month

Starting tomorrow, New Yorkers earning between 50 and 60 percent of the area media income can apply for eight units in the heart of East Williamsburg. The apartments--six one-bedrooms for $1,020/month and two two-bedrooms for $1,224/month--are located at 845 Grand Street, a new contemporary rental building with high-end interiors and a bevy of trendy amenities, including a 4,000-square-foot roof deck with hammocks and a turf lawn, communal backyard, gym with yoga room, bike room, laundry room, and indoor lounge with pool tables.
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Affordable Housing

March 9, 2017

As the Mayor weighs options for loss of public housing funding, Trump considers $6B in HUD cuts

Just two days after newly appointed Secretary of HUD (the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) Ben Carson went along with plans to cut federal funding to NYCHA by at least $35 million, the Trump administration is reportedly considering decreasing HUD's total budget by a staggering $6 billion, or 14 percent, according to a leaked budget draft obtained by the Washington Post. Though it's not clear how the cuts will affect NYC specifically, previous estimates said cuts to NYCHA's federal aid could easily balloon to $150 million this year, and Mayor de Blasio was already weighing his options for how to deal with the blow. The Wall Street Journal reports that he said yesterday he plans to put aside city money to help fill the gap, but if the city is "cut on many, many fronts simultaneously," there won't be enough to cover the loss in federal funding.
What happens next?

March 8, 2017

Mapping America’s affordable housing shortage

Extremely low-income renters face a shortage of affordable housing in every single state and major metropolitan area in the United States, a deficiency of 3.9 million units, according to a report (h/t CityLab) by the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC). Nationwide, only about 35 affordable housing units exist per 100 extremely low-income homes, labeled as ELI households, and in the New York metro area (as defined by New York-Newark-Jersey City) the results are just as grim with only 32 units available per 100 households at or above the ELI threshold.
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March 7, 2017

Lottery opens for historic brownstone-replacing apartments in Harlem, from $659/month

The block of East 126th Street between Madison and Park Avenues was once a rare, uninterrupted row of century-and-a-half-old brownstones. But many of them sat vacant in recent years, their windows boarded up and adorned with graffiti. One of these was number 58 in the middle of the block. In 2012, its roof was caving in and its floors collapsing. The city deemed it structurally unsound, as the Times reported at the time, and slated it for demolition. Despite arguments from local preservationists that this would destroy the historic block's uniformity, the site was replaced with a new modern, mixed-use rental building that extends through to 125th Street. The building, which goes by 69 East 125th Street, topped off this past summer and now its 15 affordable apartments--20 percent of the total 75 rentals--are available through the city's lottery process. They're available to those earning 60 percent of the area median income and range from $659/month studios to $797/month two-bedrooms.
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Affordable Housing

March 7, 2017

Study finds Bronx residents most in danger of housing displacement due to gentrification

A new report from the Regional Plan Association finds that residents of the Bronx are at highest risk of being pushed out due to gentrification compared to other New Yorkers, according to DNAinfo. The report, titled "Pushed Out: Housing Displacement in an Unaffordable Region," looks at the effect of rising housing costs in New York City and addresses what it names "A Crisis of Affordability." The report found the threat of being pushed out due to lack of affordable housing was a threat in 71 percent of census tracts in the Bronx. Following in displacement risk was Brooklyn at 55 percent, Manhattan and Queens at 31 percent each and Staten Island at 15 percent.
People moving out, people moving in

Affordable Housing

March 7, 2017

NYCHA’s federal funding cut by $35M

Just a day after Ben Carson's confirmation as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) last week, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) penned a letter not only inviting him to tour the city's public housing stock (the largest in the country) but urging him not to support budget cuts that would ultimately affect its 400,000 residents. Roughly $2 billion of NYCHA's total $3.2 billion operating budget comes from HUD funding, which is immediately needed for the thousands of apartments in dire need of repairs. But their worst fears have come true, as the Wall Street Journal confirms that Trump's first budget cuts geared towards the city reduce NYCHA's support by $35 million, the agency's largest decrease in federal aid in five years, and this figure could very well grow to an unprecedented $150 million.
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March 7, 2017

Apply for 50 affordable units along Bronx Park, from $734/month