The Debate Over "Affordability"
The same day ACORN's Bertha Lewis comes out with a defense of Atlantic Yards, the Mayor announces a final plan for the $130 million Housing Trust Fund supported by the Battery Park City Authority. Lewis reiterates that Atlantic Yards will serve moderate- and middle-income folks --60 percent of its affordable rental units will go to families earning more than half of the area median household income--the civil servants and teachers and police officers whom she thinks face the most unaddressed housing shortages.
But the Mayor today indicated that the city had different priorities: the majority of that trust fund--$70 million--is going to "hard to reach populations," including the very poor (those earning less than 30 percent of the median, who will not be served at all by Atlantic Yards), and households with moderate income (earning 60 to 80 percent of the median, who will receive just about 10 percent of the 2,250 affordable units at Atlantic Yards).
-Matthew Schuerman
It's time to show Bloomberg has no clothes. He talks about 65,000 affordable housing units; then it's 150,000. Who knows what number he's using now.
Anyway, they're including $3,000 month studios in these numbers and it has become a joke. When all is said and done, they're not creating very much housing for people who cannot afford the housing available. It is developers' delight in this City Hall especially for Related companies which is close to Dan Doctoroff and Deputy Dan tries to push his one time partner Steve Ross onto every local project from the Bronx to Staten Island. But the press is asleep.
The Bloomberg plan is for 165,000 units over ten years. It's the largest municipal affordable housing plan in the country - pretty impressive. And 75% of the units will go to low-income families. The remaining 25% go to middle-income families who also have a hard time finding affordable housing and who we want to keep in NYC.