habitat-brownsville-2-2010.jpg
According to a press release, Habitat for Humanity held a groundbreaking yesterday for a 12-unit condo in Ocean Hill-Brownsville “targeted to low-income working New York City families earning between 50% to 80% of the city’s Area Median Income.” The condo, St. John’s Residences, “is the first of more than 100 Habitat-NYC homes to be built in Central Brooklyn, funded in part through the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development Neighborhood Stabilization Program Round 2.” An earlier project Habitat did in Brownsville led the organization to start changing its development model in New York City so that it focused more on multi-unit builds rather than single-family homes. This particular project is supposed to be finished next year.
St. John’s Residences [Habitat for Humanity] GMAP
Habitat Brownsville Project a Game-Changer [Brownstoner]


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. Thanks, Brownstoner, for mentioning this project! And thanks, readers, for your support, volunteer time & comments.

    To clarify, Habitat-NYC uses the federal median income guidelines for NYC, adjusted for family size. For a family of four, that begins at $39,600. Our families are working people, holding the kind of low-wage jobs that keep our city running. Many are headed by single parents. Our homes aren’t free, but they are subsidized so that no Habitat-NYC homeowner pays more than 33% of monthly income on housing.

    This is probably more than you ever wanted to know about Habitat-NYC. But if you’re still curious, go to our website at http://www.habitatnyc.org. You can learn more about us & meet some of our families via video and visit their homes!

    And please let people know that we are accepting applications for this project & future projects in Bed-Stuy. Details & applications are on our website.

  2. I think Habitat is great, too.

    Rob, I just found stats for Brownsville that say in 2008, the median was $17,967. Other stats say that it’s $28,125, which I think is probably closer to reality, sadly enough. These are the people the project is seeking to help.

  3. I worked on this build (and the one in East NY a couple years ago)!! The most rewarding part of my build was that the future tenant of the unit was working on his own apartment alongside of us! Habitat is generally a great organization.

  4. quote:
    targeted to low-income working New York City families earning between 50% to 80% of the city’s Area Median Income.

    just looked it up
    for brownsville:
    Average Household Income $59,240
    Median Household Income $51,941

    what are the prices of these to buy if you need to make between 25K and 40K?

    im just curious, i think habitat for humanity builds good things.

    *rob*