Author: linked

Spitzer’s Affordable Housing Plan

Everyone who cares about making housing affordable should be excited by this historic announcement. We finally have a Governor who understands just how serious the housing crisis has become in all regions of the state. Building affordable housing is one of the most effective economic development strategies available to government. [Ted Houghton, SHNNY]

It seems the press has not been that excited. Instead, Spitzer’s proposal for a $400 million Housing Opportunity Fund seems to have been met with a collective yawn. Too bad – if the state Senate can be convinced o sign on (a big if), this would be the biggest investment in affordable and supportive housing in more than half a century.

[Nice work, Ted.]

It’s a Housing Problem

[Behavior] is not the fundamental issue when rent for a two-bedroom is $1,100 and someone is making minimum wage… It’s a housing problem, and you need a housing solution,” he said. “At the end of the day, the working poor in this city do not make enough without some sort of subsidized housing.

Indeed – do the math. At $7.15 an hour, Guzman’s full-time job grosses only $13,728 (figuring 48 work weeks at 40 hours per). That alone doesn’t cover his rent of $1,170 per month in Bushwick (and that’s before taxes). A second income gets the family to 50% of their income going towards rent.

Soup

Hale and Hearty Soups, which opened its first store in Manhattan in 1996, has outgrown its production headquarters in the borough and hopes to complete a new 20,000-square-foot facility in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, by spring.

That’s a lotta soup.

Any Affordable at Berry and North 12th?

From Brownstoner, word today that the parking lot at the corner of Berry and North 12th (last used by Brooklyn Brewery to park their trucks) is going to be a rental project:

Last month Manhattan-based real estate firm LCOR partnered with Lehman Brothers and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System to buy 34 Berry Street, and they plan to build a 6-story, 140-unit rental on the site.

The site is very large, and zoned for R6A – the big question is will it use the inclusionary housing program to provide affordable housing?

The inclusionary housing bonus on upland sites has so far been a disappointment. Only one project (at Kent and North 8th) has opted to build with the bonus. Dunn Development’s Cook and Varick Street project hopes to have some of its affordable housing generate bonuses for upland sites further west (it is also the receiving site for some of the waterfront affordable housing). But clearly, developers have not been rushing out to build affordable housing upland.

There are a few reasons for this, all of which might be solvable at 34 Berry. First off, most development in the Northside and Greenpoint (the only areas where the inclusionary bonus applies) has been condominium, and it is difficult to structure onsite affordable in a condominium project (unless you put the affordable housing offsite, which was done at Kent and North 8th). Second, you need a project with a certain minimum density – R6B clearly doesn’t have much potential to generate affordable housing, but a large R6A site such as this might.

So perhaps the stars might finally align for a project to build affordable housing under the existing zoning guidelines (rather than throwing out the zoning entirely).

Dedication to a Cause

Listening to New & Notes on NPR just now, a caller phoned in to discuss the state of the Democratic primary (Hillary & Barack). The caller noted that he was a life-long independent, but had switched his party affiliation this year. He joined the Republican party just so he could vote against Rudy Giuliani in the primary.

Nice.

Ferries close, ferries open

NYT has a another update on the ferry closure (and the new operators for the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island ferries). According to Tom Fox, owner of NY Water Taxi, Schaefer Landing’s developer has been paying to subsidize service, but even that is not enough to cover costs. (No word here on whether or not any developers in LIC are also subsidizing the water taxi.) Also, news that the City does have funds available that might be used for an operational subsidy.

The article includes a photo of deckhands Damien and Ali from the afternoon shift. Last I heard, they were still unemployed as of New Year’s Day.