Crown Heights Apartments Ribbon Cutting
The Crown Heights Apartments, an eight-story development with 143 affordable rentals for low-income seniors, made its debut with a ribbon cutting ceremony last week. (That’s John Rhea, Chairman of the New York City Housing Authority, above.) The development, part of Bloomberg’s New Housing Marketplace Plan, is a state-of-the-art, $40 million building created to provide quality…
The Crown Heights Apartments, an eight-story development with 143 affordable rentals for low-income seniors, made its debut with a ribbon cutting ceremony last week. (That’s John Rhea, Chairman of the New York City Housing Authority, above.) The development, part of Bloomberg’s New Housing Marketplace Plan, is a state-of-the-art, $40 million building created to provide quality housing the older residents who may otherwise have to leave the neighborhood. Financing for affordable one-bedroom rentals are for tenants earning a maximum income of up to $29,760. Residents in affordable units will pay no more the 30 percent of their income for rent. The project was built by the Local Development Corp. of Crown Heights and SKA Marin and financed in part by a variety of NYC agencies. GMAP
Photo by GACNYC.com
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Is there any indication that the residents will NOT have to pay their own electric bills?
all the projects ive lived in (in jersey) we didnt pay electric. but i have no problems if the senior citizens dont have to pay for their own electricity. i have problems with a 20 year old with three kids with unidenfiable fathers getting a cheap subsidized apartment, but NOT senior citizens on meager fixed incomes (especially ones raising their kids’ kids which is actually what my grandparents did with me). hells they could house senior citizens in trump tower and subsidize it for all i care, i wouldnt hold it against them.
you have NO clue how hard it is to live in the entire northeast part of this country for a senior citizen on a fixed income.
*rob*
I’ve watched this building go up and, as MM says, it’s a nice design. It was built on a grassy lot that, in recent years, was the “backyard,” so to speak, of the senior citizen (“David Chavis”) housing next door. I did not realize it was designated for seniors until I saw this item online, though.
As to the AC, this is hardly a luxury item during our hot, humid summers. As you may recall, the city oftentimes advises seniors to go to cooling centers on days of oppressive heat and I have personally known at least one senior to have experienced heat stroke. I can’t believe that anyone can hold it against seniors that air conditioning will be available to them in this complex. Is there any indication that the residents will NOT have to pay their own electric bills?
Subway cars have central air. That doesn’t make them limousines.
“You’re correct. Add air-conditioning to the list of “rights” to which folks on subsidies are entitled.”
AC is not a “right” to which anyone is entitled but it happens to be included in this development. That hardly makes this a “luxury” complex.
Etson, I’m pretty sure the people in this complex are legitimately low income elderly. No summer homes in the Hamptons hiding out here.
I urge Poly and Benson to come up with a fairer system than a lottery. It is possible to spend one’s entire life, well into old age, and not interact with social services. I know a lot of fiercely independent people who would be eligible for this kind of housing, who are completely off the city grid. A lottery, while imperfect, is the only easy way to do this. And even with that, one has to be qualified to be in the lottery, so there is a lot of screening going on anyway, which is a good thing.
While a specific politician may actually have little “right” to claim credit, they always will. That’s politics. No one really pays them much mind, anyway. They are a necessary cog in the wheel that gets the project done, and getting the project done is the main goal.
I can see both sides of this debate.
1) I think that poor elderly people have one of the best claims for social housing. However, the criteria ought to be based on their assets more than their income. It’s pefectly possible to be a ‘low income’ retiree and quite wealthy.
2) The point made by Polemicist and Benson that projects such as this seem to represent a rather piecemeal approach is a good one. A lottery does not seem a good way to allocate these apartments to the most deserving cases (although I suppose may be necessary to avoid lawsuits). Perhaps the housing department should co-ordinate with social services in allocating such apartments.
3) I also agree that public officials should not take credit for spending what is not their money. Not saying that the housing shouldn’t be built, just that politicians doing their job shouldn’t be cause for self-congratulation.
when it comes to many senior citizens tho, air conditioning is not a luxury amenity, it’s often a healthy and medical necessity.
*rob*
Benson, my dots don’t need connecting. I can see quite clearly by myself. Let me string a few out for you. First of all, not everyone who is in a low income group lives in NYCHA housing. In fact, far more don’t than do. So what about their needs? This complex helps solve the housing needs of all kinds of lower income seniors, coming from all over. What is wrong with that?
Secondly, if you don’t have a lottery to choose who gets a place here, what fair method is there? Had they not done it this way, you’d get the friends and relatives of connected people, and there would be no chance for anyone else. A lottery is the only fair way to distribute a small resource. I happen to know that there is a huge waiting list already for this place. Even with the restrictions of seniors only, they could easily fill ten more of these complexes.
NYCHA should fix up their housing stock, but with what? I remember the screaming on Brownstoner at the thought of NYCHA spending a dime of tax money for anything. This project, which I repeat, is NOT a NYCHA project, is a step in the right direction of helping house people in an alternative to over costly, inefficiently run NYCHA housing.
Lastly, this project is in Brooklyn, not Zagreb or Tokyo. It’s irrelevent that A/C is not common there. It’s common here, and a necessary component for a senior citizen complex, unless the thought of heat prostrated senior citizens being carted to the emergency room doesn’t bother you. That, by the way, costs more taxpayer money that central air.
Rob-
The reason they consider families is that the building will accept seniors that are raising grandkids or fosters and siblings living together. I believe that the requirement is that the tenant on the lease must meet the age requirements, and that there needs to be at least one tenant who meets the age requirement living in the apartment on a full-time basis.
I lived near a similar residence in a large upstate NY city and thought that the combination of a majority of seniors with a sprinkling of children and teens made for a pretty nice mix. That same city also had a law that provided apartments to police in the project for $1 per month. So there were cops, old folks and little kids. The cops kept an eye on things, the seniors had an active community and the kids were for the most part kept on a short leash as there were plenty of adults to keep an eye on them.