The site of a stalled Prospect-Lefferts Garden condominium is set to become a city-subsidized middle-income housing project in the first deal to close since the city launched its Housing Asset Renewal Program in 2009, according to the New York Times. The $20 million program, intended to simultaneously jumpstart stalled construction sites and fill a need for affordable housing, has been slow to catch on as developers attempted to wait out a rebound in the housing market. But facing foreclosure at the 382 Lefferts Avenue site where it had once planned a 26-unit condo building, developer Tali Realty applied for the city program last year. Comments

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It’s been close to two years since New York City’s Department of Housing and Preservation and Development unveiled its $20 million Housing Asset Renewal Program to turn unused condominium units into middle-income housing, but no HARP deals have been signed to date. Though HPD says several developers are close to signing, housing prices haven’t fallen dramatically and many are waiting to see if the market improves. “It’s a good idea, but the timing was a little off,” developer Greg O’Connell, who has developed much of Red Hook, told City Limits. [more]

The number of New York City apartments available to low-income families has decreased dramatically over the past decade, and affordable housing advocates are urging the city to use its plentiful failed luxury development projects to reverse that trend. After reporting that there are 601 troubled condos in the city last month, the New York chapter of Right to the City, which fights against displacement of the urban poor, is arguing that these troubled properties be turned into affording housing. In Downtown Brooklyn, for example, the 246 new be@schermerhorn condos are 90 percent vacant and priced at $436,000 on average, the report said. Turning abandoned projects like those into government-subsidized homes for families earning less than $37,000 would help fight back against the loss of 198,370 city apartments they would have been able to afford between 2002 and 2008, advocacy groups say. Through the Housing Asset Renewal Program, the city has already pledged $20 million to convert condos to moderately priced housing, but some say the program’s income cap of $69,000 per year for a single person means it will not help the poorest of the city’s residents. [NYT]

In response to the glut of unsold condominiums and stalled residential
construction sites, today city officials announced a $20 million pilot program which will turn vacant buildings into as many as 400
affordable housing units for low- to middle-income families. Funding
for the Housing Asset Renewal Program, which the city hopes will
prevent neighborhoods from deteriorating as more buildings are left
vacant, will come from the City Council and the Department of Housing
Preservation and Development. A notice of funding availability will be
distributed to banks and developers in mid-July and projects will be
selected based on who offers the steepest discounts and where the
abandoned homes are located. [more]