Nearly 1,000 moderately priced homes and apartments are now available for purchase in the city through the Housing Partnership Development Corp., a non-profit that works to create new affordable housing with the help of government grants, subsidies and tax credits. Of those, 700 are located in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights and East New York neighborhoods and are priced up to 35 percent below market values. In the Bergen Street Co-ops, at 1509 Bergen Street in Crown Heights, Brooklyn families meeting a minimum income requirement of $54,000 per year can apply to purchase one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, priced between $179,190 and $350,000. Homes like these are built with the help of government grants, subsidies and tax credits, which the Housing Partnership works to make available to developers selected by the city. Recently, funds were approved for the 104-unit Sterling Street Co-ops conversion, another of the organization’s projects, at 320 Sterling Street in Crown Heights. Construction on the project is 75 percent complete. In the Bronx, there are 200 affordable units currently available, and there are 75 in Queens. [Brooklyn Eagle via Curbed]
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Almost two dozen homes built by non-profit group the Housing Partnership Development Corp. in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens are sitting empty six months after construction was completed. The partnership, which works with city, state and private groups to construct affordable housing, is finding it nearly impossible to sell the group of homes it constructed in Jamaica. Sheila Martin, vice president of the Housing Partnership, said that new, more restrictive mortgage approval standards have made it increasingly difficult for even qualified affordable housing buyers to get financing. “The underwriting criteria has gotten so restrictive,” Martin said. “The buyer is now required to put down not 5 percent, but 10 percent. In some cases, that’s around $30,000.”