City Plan to Keep Bed Stuy, Crown Heights Apartments Affordable Backfires

The city has been giving loans to nonprofits so they can beat out private investors to buy up apartment buildings in foreclosure and keep the units affordable to existing tenants. However, the program is not working, at least not for four buildings in Bed Stuy and Crown Heights investigated by The Wall Street Journal.

In fact, the buildings have deteriorated further under the program and may end up being sold to for-profit developers anyway.

The story recounts the travails of Pinkrose James, a 56-year-old cook and 16-year resident of one of the buildings, 230 Schenectady. Most of the other tenants in her building were evicted, but she has held on because she can’t afford higher rent. A fire in her apartment forced her into a shelter for seven months while waiting for repairs. “I can’t afford to live in this skyrocketing rent that they have in Brooklyn now,” she told the WSJ.

The slow court process for foreclosures in Brooklyn has prevented nonprofit Mutual Housing Association of New York from gaining control of the buildings and making repairs, according to the story.

The buildings are located at 266 Malcolm X Boulevard, 896 Madison Street, and 230 and 232 Schenectady Avenue. The Journal said all four are in Bed Stuy, but two are in Crown Heights.

Delays Hinder Affordable Housing [WSJ]
Photo by Gregg Snodgrass for PropertyShark