From the September issue:

Click chart to enlarge

Over the summer, New York City crossed the three-quarters mark on the way to Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s goal of churning out 165,000 units of affordable housing by 2014. In his announcement of the milestone, the mayor boasted that the number of New Yorkers ultimately benefiting from the plan will exceed the total population of Miami.

Of course, Bloomberg has never been short of lofty ambitions. But he picked a challenging time to wager a piece of his legacy on real estate development.

In the midst of the financial turmoil over the past few years, few construction projects have made it off the ground. Bloomberg’s proposal, dubbed the New Housing Marketplace Plan, was launched in 2003 to spur the development and preservation of subsidized housing for low- to middle-income New Yorkers through a variety of funding programs and tax incentives. But it has already been altered to remain viable in today’s climate. [more]

A $50.9 million green retrofit project at the West 135th Street
Apartments has been completed, according to a statement released today
by Jonathan Rose Companies, local and federal housing agencies and
Enterprise, a Maryland-based provider of developer capital and expertise for affordable housing.

Jonathan Rose Companies had acquired the 202,500-square-foot property with 198 units
at 107-145 West 135th Street through its Rose Smart Growth
Investment Fund, an investment fund focusing on the strategic green
repositioning of existing buildings in December 2008 in order to
preserve affordable Section 8 housing, while creating an
energy-efficient apartment community. – Miranda Neubauer  [more]

HPD Commissioner Wambua
New York University’s Furman Center of Real Estate and Urban Policy has compiled the first known comprehensive database of the city’s affordable housing stock that links the units to the agencies that subsidize them. The Wall Street Journal reported that it is available on the Furman website beginning today.

By highlighting the origin of affordable housing subsidies, across the city, state and federal agencies that contributed data, the database provides a clearer picture of when the funding expires and the units can be converted to market rate. [more]

Related Companies will preserve three affordable complexes for lower-income tenants for another 35 years, the Wall Street Journal reported, a victory for the city, which has been trying to prevent affordable units from turning market-rate.
The three complexes include the Terrific Tenements on West 47th and 48th streets and North Park at 20 West 102nd Street, both purchased by Related in the 1980s, and New Horizons at 200 West 111th Street, bought last year. The buildings account for 158 units in total. Related’s contract with the city to keep the units affordable was expiring around this time, the Journal said. “This was the juncture point, where Related or any private developer could make a decision to take them market,” said Marc Jahr, president of the Housing Development Corporation. “They could get a ton of money in rent if they go market with these projects.”
[more]

A proposed $285 million budget cut from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development could jeopardize the city’s goal of creating or preserving 165,000 affordable housing units by 2014. According to the Wall Street Journal, the program, one of the hallmarks of the Bloomberg administration, was slated to cost $8.5 billion after a previous cut to the city’s budget in 2009. The housing department was one of the hardest-hit agencies in the 2009 budget proposal, and that’s the case again this year, but a spokesperson for Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the city still plans to reach its goal. [more]

There’s something fishy about the Republican push to end the city’s rent regulations, at least according to some Democrats, and they’re going to get to the bottom of it. The Daily News reported that the Metropolitan Council on Housing, a tenant advocate group, submitted a Freedom of Information Law request for all communications between landlord groups and leaders in the Republican-controlled state Senate. Austin Shafran, an aide to Senate Democrats, said the “affordable housing massacre” being staged by the GOP “needs to be exposed.” But a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos of Nassau County countered that the party “make[s] the decision to support or oppose legislation based on the merits, plain and simple.” [NYDN]

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has named Mathew Wambua, the commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, replacing Rafael Cestero effective April 4. As previously reported by The Real Deal, Cestero is vacating his role after five years of public service to pursue a position with L + M Development Partners. “We’re two-thirds of the way through completing the most ambitious affordable housing plan underway anywhere in the nation, and Mat’s leadership, intelligence and financial acumen will help us meet our goals,” Bloomberg said in a statement. TRD [more]

From left: Mathieu Eugene, Peter Koo, Darlene Mealy, Erik Dilan, Jumaane Williams and Fernando Cabrera

Six New York City council members bent city housing laws to the brink of their breaking point to obtain affordable residencies, according to a Daily News investigative report.

Council members Jumaane Williams, Fernando Cabrera, Peter Koo and Mathieu Eugene allegedly received as much as $1,500 in tax breaks by reporting primary residencies outside of their council district homes.

Council member Erik Dilan lives in a home reserevd for families earning less than $114,000 even though he and his wife combine to earn $45,000 more than, said the Daily News. Darlene Mealy moved into an apartment available for families making less than $15,200 in 1993, but within two years made a $14,000 down payment on a $90,000 home nearby. Williams was also found to have illegally converted the basement of his apartments.
[more]

From the February issue: Rents are rising. Concessions are on the wane, and the vacancy rate in certain neighborhoods remains below 2 percent. Nevertheless, New Yorkers are winning lotteries for affordable apartments. Take this example: Recently, a young woman ran into me in the street and said she had watched one of my recent shows and “won the lottery.” I didn’t know what she meant until she explained that she learned about an affordable housing lottery from the show and lives in a new apartment building in Lower Manhattan as a result. [more]

Residents of an affordable housing rental building in the East Village at 390 East 8th Street plan to announce today that they had filed a complaint with Attorney General Eric Schneiderman urging him to block the sale of their homes to Tower Brokerage by other tenants in the building. The building is designated for low-income residents because of a court agreement which mandated it, but groups say that the potential sale violates that agreement. Tenants from the building are trying to sell it to Tower, potentially leaving countless residents homeless. “I hope the attorney general does the right thing and blocks this sale before people become homeless,” said Marilyn Berdugo, a tenant of 17 years. TRD [more]