First Yards Tower To Be Half-Affordable
Amid all the photo ops at yesterday’s groundbreaking ceremony for Atlantic Yards, there was one big piece of news (well, two if you count Governor Paterson’s disclosure that he grew up on Grand Avenue between Gates and Greene!): Mayor Bloomberg announced that he’d gotten Forest City Ratner to commit to making 50% of the units…
Amid all the photo ops at yesterday’s groundbreaking ceremony for Atlantic Yards, there was one big piece of news (well, two if you count Governor Paterson’s disclosure that he grew up on Grand Avenue between Gates and Greene!): Mayor Bloomberg announced that he’d gotten Forest City Ratner to commit to making 50% of the units in the first residential tower—which currently is slated to get underway in the first half of next year—on the site affordable. As the Brooklyn Paper reported earlier this week, Ratner’s also been toying with hiring David Childs in an effort to beef up on name brand architects after tossing Frank Gehry overboard.
Affordable Housing Deal at Atlantic Yards [Crain’s]
After Years of Controversy, Ceremonial Shovels Come Out [NY Times]
Protests at Groundbreaking for B’klyn Arena [NY Post]
Photo from nycmayorsoffice
If I recall correctly, One Prospect Park was supposed to be “affordable”.
http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2006/02/one_prospect_pa.php
Well said, fsrq. People opposed to AY will always complain about the project, no matter what happens with it. The only scenario is if Ratner abandoned it and the yards remained undeveloped for the next 100 years. The party line used to be that Ratner would never build the affordable housing, and now that he will actually do it, they are screeching that it’s still too expensive. You can never win with these guys…
We could be like Houston Texas which has little zoning regulation and is literally the Wild West when it comes to development — Urban sprawl, pollution, ugly buildings.
The housing issue is really complicated. New York has and incredibly complicated rules regarding building, land use and zoning etc. In addition, Local politicians want to exact their pound of flesh when housing is built.
The keys to this issues are
HOw do we define “affordable housing.” Some people (see rent stabilization) see it as low rent for anyone who lives in an apartment without income limits; Other adhere to strict, bureaucratic limits that prevent needy people from accessing this scarse resource; Other say if your income is 165% of AMI, you are eligible for affordable housing… I am not sure which is right,
Do we need affordable housing in a city where market rates are crazy? If not, then low and middle income folks will have to live somewhere
How to finance affordable housing if it is a goal that the feds, the state, city and the people want? Public-private financing schemes are complicated and provide developers with lots of goodies, 100% publicly-subsidized housing does not work (see the NYCHA)and if it is 100 % private, none will be built,
These are serious questions and it is easy to make some people out to be devils (developers, the mayor) and others to be saints (community activists). It is much more complex and nuanced than that
Don’t put words in my mouth, fsrg. I’m all for development of the yards. We need housing, we need new businesses, we need everything.
What we don’t need, and what I will never justify as just hunky dory, is a super weathy private developer using my money, by which I mean all of us taxpayers, to do it. I don’t find it ok that, aided and abetted by the borough, city, state and their agencies, the farm was given away. I don’t like sweetheart backroom deals, and I don’t like eminent domain in the hands of private corporations. I really don’t like the race and class baiting pr campaign that has accompanied this process, and I find it so amazing that people like you have no problem with all of that just so you can have a lousy sports arena. Yeah, I’d love to see good development, but this isn’t it.
Apparently you don’t need money in order to build anymore. You promise the moon, then get the city and state to give you the land, be so good at it that you actually get them to pay you for taking said land, and throw in a lifetime of tax breaks as well. All so some elected officials can pose for photos with overly tall atheletes and buxom cheerleaders. Ain’t America great?
“Mayor Bloomberg announced that he’d gotten Forest City Ratner to commit to making 50% of the units in the first residential tower—which currently is slated to get underway in the first half of next year—on the site affordable.”
This coming from the same man who, while campaigning for his third term as emperor, was floating the idea of free rides on some of the crosstown city buses and health benefits for college students. When exactly should we expect those benefits to start?
If these units are going to be affordable rentals, then there will be a maximum income limit applicants have to not exceed. This is set by the federal govt since tax breaks — at least some of them — come from the IRS. There may be bond or other financing through the city.
The rents are based on 30% of the affordable income (could be 40, 50, 60, 100, 120% Area Median income) depending on the population targeted for those units. Minimum incomes are 30% AMI income limit.
Below are the rents and income for the most popular affordable housing program for Kings county.
HUD Published Income Limits for 2009
60.00% 100.00% 140.00%
1 Person 33,240 55,400 46,536
2 Person 38,040 63,400 53,256
3 Person 42,780 71,300 59,892
4 Person 47,520 79,200 66,528
5 Person 51,300 85,500 71,820
6 Person 55,140 91,900 77,196
7 Person 58,920 98,200 82,488
8 Person 62,700 104,500 87,780
9 Person 66,540 110,900 93,156
10 Person 70,320 117,200 98,448
11 Person 74,160 123,600 103,824
12 Person 77,940 129,900 109,116
LIHTC Rent Limits for 2009
Bedrooms (People) 60.00% 100.00%
Efficiency (1.0) 831 1,385
1 Bedroom (1.5) 891 1,485
2 Bedrooms (3.0) 1,069 1,782
3 Bedrooms (4.5) 1,235 2,058
4 Bedrooms (6.0) 1,378 2,297
5 Bedrooms (7.5) 1,520 2,533
MM – there are a couple of tranches in the “affordable” component(and I at one time knew them but dont feel like looking it up on a Friday afternoon) some are in the more middle class range (which includes relatively high numbers like I believe it is actually 125K for a family of 4 or 5) and there is another one in the low income category that is WELL below this – and AY will have both levels
the point is however there is essentially nothing unique here, this is more or less the income levels that every low and middle income “affordable” project is built under.
Essentially this is analogous to someone proposing a store be built on Atlantic Ave, everyone protests, retailer says, we are going to create 100 jobs that pay 1.5x the minimum wage and include health care, protest continues, protesters say retailer is lying no jobs are going to be created, retailer eventually wins, protesters say – ah he wont create any jobs anyway – retailer announces the hiring of 50 workers to start – former protesters say – well 1.5x minimum wage is too low and the health care plan stinks cause it doesnt include mental illness coverage…..
Just admit you hate anything and everything associated with AY, that you’ll never be satisfied and then stop heaping all your negativity on something that IS GONA HAPPEN
It’s all a complete and utter joke (on us).
By what measure is including average incomes from affluents areas of Westchester County NOT rigged?