Shaun Donovan

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 foreclosure rate. Of the 17,109 homeownership units in the plan (most are rental, similar to the overall ratio citywide), just five have faced foreclosure.

Why?

The city keeps its owners on a shorter leash than the private market, steering buyers clear of subprime mortgages and other loans that could allow them to be overextended.  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 the decision today after squaring away details related to his jail time.

Mr. Khan owns the 94-unit 1055 Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard in the Bronx, which currently has 2,268 Housing Maintenance Code violations. Mr. Khan is the first landlord since 2006 to go to jail, when a Brooklyn landlord was placed in civil contempt for violations at his properties.  read more »

The city’s commissioner of Housing Preservation and Development talks about the Bloomberg administration’s plans for 165,000 new affordable homes, its support of raising the threshold for rent-stabilized apartments—and its pull in Albany on housing issues.  read more »

What was the Bloomberg adminstration thinking when it put developers and low-income housing advocates in a room together and asked them to hash out a plan to reform housing subsidies? Did wunderkind housing commissioner Shaun Donovan really think they would agree? Apparently, he doesn't now, if he ever did. Metro's Patrick Arden reports that the final meeting came and went with no consensus. So Donovan will come out with the official recommendations on his own. A spokesman confirms to us via e-mail: "The meeting on Tuesday was the last meeting of the task force." Far from creating a unified position that all parties can take forward, it looks like the past six months of discussion just set the stage for what will become a rancorous public debate to follow. -Matthew Schuerman

Crain's reports that a city task force will likely recommend continuing the certificate program that allows Manhattan condo developers to get tax breaks.

The article quotes an unnamed member of the panel saying:

"We are united in wanting the program to continue, although we all agree that it needs to be fixed."

We noted more dissension on the task force when we wrote about the same program last week, although it became clear the entire decision rests with city housing commissioner Shaun Donovan, the panel's chairman. Donovan has taken no position on certificates publicly but a source told us he has recently cooled to them although he once favored them.

Today's glowing profile in The New York Times paints Donovan out to be an advocate's commissioner, albeit one who leverages market forces, which suggests he would have no trouble getting rid of the certificates if he thought it would produce more affordable housing.

-Matthew Schuerman

Vito Lopez, the powerful Brooklyn Democratic Party chairman, is spoiling for a fight with Mayor Mich  read more »

The city's Housing and Vacancy Survey is out, and Crain's has the relevant take-away: "The home-ownership rate in New York City reached an all-time high in 2005 but housing was more scarce for low and medium-income households."

During the last three years the city added 52,000 units, and one in three households own a home -- the highest rate since the survey began in 1965. The median income for homeowners was $65,000.

But the number of rent-stabilized units, where the median household annual income was $32,000, was nearly unchanged at 1.04 million.

Nevertheless, Bloomberg is playing it like good news. The headline on today's press release from City Hall: "Housing Stock Expands Significantly; Homeownership at All-Time High, Rent-Stabilized Unit Count Holds Firm and Neighborhood Satisfaction Improves."  read more »

The full statement after the jump.

- Tom McGeveran