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Affordable Housing

1 By Stephen Duffy 2/13 11:09am

Affordable Housing or Lack Thereof

Fixing homes from the bully pulput. (William Alatriste/City Council)

Quinn Tackles Affordable Housing and Maintenance Problems In State of the City Address

In between heavy dollops of sentiment, Christine Quinn cemented some specific plans to combat the affordable housing problem and the facilitation of upgrading the City’s landlord maintenance code in her State of the City address last week.

Ms. Quinn outlined how the Housing Preservation and Development Department is extending affordability to 60 years for some of the biggest developments. Affordability agreements currently stand at just the 30-year mark. Read More

1 By Matt Chaban 1/30 10:18am

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Home-less.

‘A Nihilistic and Vapid Form of Art Never Seen in the Big Apple’

That is what Brooklyn activist Samuel E. Anderson sees resulting from the subway-driven gentrification The Observer explored on Friday. It was a widely debated story, with a number of commenters pointing out that Bushwick really isn't that far from Manhattan, so there is no reason to assume the (over) development will not be just as swift and brutal as before.

There was a lot of  talk about money and power and access, both to capital and transportation. But what they all ignored, excepting Mr. Anderson, who sent us an email, was not just the minorities but the minority artists affected by these changes. This is not exactly new territory, but it is well said—including our emphases—and it speaks to a dark future for minority communities, affordable housing and the art scene as a (w)hole. Read More

By Matt Chaban 11/09/11 12:28pm

Affordable Housing or Lack Thereof

the-bradford-fulton-avenue-110311

Lloyd Blankfein’s Bed-Stuy Pet Project Rising Fast

It was less than a year-ago that Lloyd Blankfein's set his loafered foot in Bed-Stuy, for the groundbreaking of the Bradford, a middle- and low-income development being constructed on Fulton Street. It was an unusual place to find the banker, but Goldman, capable of making money anywhere, had made a $45 million investment in the project. Brownstoner recently passed by the project, and, as you can see, it's come a long way in a short amount of time.The whole shebang is due to open next summer. Read More

15 By Matt Chaban 8/29/11 5:48pm

Affordable Housing or Lack Thereof

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Do 36 Harlem Tenements Hold the Key to the City’s Affordable Housing Future?

Better days are ahead for the Randolph Houses on West 114th Street—not that the 36 tenement buildings in Central Harlem have ever truly known good days.

Built in the 1890s, along with thousands of other substandard cold water flats serving the booming population of European immigrants, the buildings were abandoned amidst white flight. Like so many other unwanted apartments of that generation, they were taken over by the city in the 1970s and turned into public housing. Attempts at upkeep have been made over the years, but the upkeep never really was, well, kept up. The buildings have deteriorated to such a state that only 109 of their 452 units are occupied, but the city cannot afford to fix them.

To finally revive the Randolph Houses, the city’s Housing Authority and Department of Housing Preservation and Development are partnering with a private developer to retrofit the properties into modern, low-income housing. A request for proposals was released last week, and the winning developer will be charged with transforming the buildings into a mix of 140 public housing units and at least 155 affordable housing units. Read More

5 By Laura Kusisto 6/09/11 12:24pm

Housing Woes

Mr. Lopez at work.

Wage War Between Dems, Affordable Housing Advocates

A rare divide has formed between Democrats and affordable housing advocates over a prevailing wage provision in the extension of the popular 421-a tax credit. Those advocates say that an extension of the 421-a tax credit that includes requiring them to pay prevailing wages to construction workers on non-public projects will drastically reduce the number of Read More

1 By Matt Coyne 3/01/11 10:23pm

Gentrification Watch

Is Affordable Housing Gentrifying Brooklyn?

Is the city's public-private affordable housing model—the Community Preservation Corp., a group of 70 banks and insurance companies, in particular—expediting Brooklyn's gentrification?

The Gotham Gazette seems to think so. The Gazette investigated the city's publicly available property transaction records and found that since 2007, 65 percent of the $701 million invested in Brooklyn went Read More