Affordable Housing Lottery for Three Brownsville Builds Has Units for $545

An affordable housing lottery launched for three new 100 percent affordable Brownsville buildings on formerly vacant city-owned sites. A developer bought the lots for $10 as part of a city-funded project to build deeply affordable apartments, with rents starting at $545 a month.

There are 34 studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments included in the lottery for the buildings at 47 New Lots Avenue, 177 Hegeman Avenue, and 216 Sackman Street. All are rent stabilized and income restricted, targeted at households of one to seven people earning 30 to 70 percent of Area Median Income, or up to $140,630 a year, according to the listing.

One of the units is a three-bedroom apartment set aside for households of three to seven people earning between $0 and $60,270 a year. That household would have to qualify for Section 8 and pay 30 percent of their income towards rent.

Of the remaining 33 units, there are eight studios priced between $545 and $1,517, seven one-bedroom apartments between $693 and $1,908, five two-bedrooms at $1,543 and $2,272, and five three-bedroom units for $1,767 and $2,610.

The buildings were developed in a partnership between Alembic Community Development and JMR Residential and designed by Urban Quotient. The project is dubbed Brownsville Crossing.

The buildings include a shared laundry room and bike storage, as well as outdoor areas, according to the listing. Tenants have to pay for electricity, which covers the stove. Rent includes heat and hot water.

Permits show the buildings have a total of 42 apartments. The building at 47 New Lots Avenue is six stories with 17 units; at 177 Hegeman Avenue, the building is four stories with 12 apartments. The building at 216 Sackman Street, on the corner of Liberty Avenue, is four stories with 13 units.

Renderings show the boxy buildings, despite slight variations in size and shape, share similar beige brick masonry facades with traditional rectangular windows decorated with patterned brick lintels and dividers.

Prior to the new developments, all three sites were vacant and city owned. The site at 177 Hegeman Street housed an eye-catching, four-story red brick building until 2014, when it was demolished after years of neglect. The city claimed it through a tax lien sale in the ’80s, records show.

In 2023, city records show the lots were transferred to HP South Liberty Housing Development Fund Corporation, operated by Alembic and JMR, for $10 after the developers were selected from an RFP process. To fund construction, the developers used HPD’s Neighborhood Construction Program.

The Brownsville Crossing lottery closes on April 14. To apply, visit the listing on New York City’s Housing Connect website.

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