A new low-income housing development is almost ready for move-ins on the Lower East Side, according to EV Grieve. The Lee, a 99,000-square-foot, $59 million new construction at 133 Pitt Street on the corner of East Houston Street, was developed by non-profit social services organization Common Ground. The 263-unit building has set aside 104 units for formerly homeless residents, 105 units for low-income families and 54 units for residents who are at risk for homelessness. [more]

More companies and fewer investment banks are putting money into affordable housing developments, according to the New York Times, after many financial groups scaled back their involvement in the wake of the recession. While many financial institutions, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, were the old standby investors of low-income housing tax credits during the pre-Lehman era, an increased focus on liquidity after the market crash caused many to back off. Today, experts say, the credits have become popular with big-name companies like Verizon, Google and insurance groups Liberty Mutual and Allstate. [more]

A non-profit organization has canceled its plans to build a $50 million apartment complex for formerly homeless and low-income individuals less than a week before its scheduled presentation before Jamaica’s Community Board 12, the Daily News reported. The proposal, by Manhattan-based Common Ground, had drawn mixed opinions from community leaders, some of whom had argued that southeastern Jamaica does not need another homeless shelter. Common Ground had insisted that the project was not a shelter. Its proposal had called for 133 studio apartments for formerly homeless individuals and 89 units for individuals making less than $32,000 per year. Comments

Developer Two Trees Management is now accepting applications for 21 affordable housing units in its new rental conversion at 25 Washington Street in Dumbo. The 105-unit building will consider the first 8,000 applications it receives, before leaving the selection process up to a lottery. A two-bedroom unit in the building is expected to run between $641 and $819 a month. [Brownstoner] and [DumboNYC]

Nearly $20 million in federal funds is being distributed across the country to combat health and safety hazards in low-income housing developments, a spokesperson for the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced today. The funds will be distributed for retrofitting and repair projects, as well as research programs that are aimed at better combating safety and health issues in subsidized multi-family housing communities. Among the hazards targeted in the program are environmentally triggered asthma and childhood lead poisoning. Ron Sims, deputy secretary of HUD, said that the program addresses a vital concern in low-income housing communities. “More than 6 million families in the U.S. live in homes with moderate to severe physical housing problems,” Sims said. TRD

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An effort to close the state budget gap by deferring low-income housing tax credits could curb private investment in affordable housing development, the Wall Street Journal reported. The state’s tax credit program allows affordable housing developers to sell tax credits to investors in order to raise cash for their projects. Investors can then claim the credits each year for 10 years. The proposed measure would defer the use of those credits that exceed $2 million for three years, which developers say will devalue them, discourage private-sector participation in affordable housing, and ultimately threaten the success of some projects — even those that are already underway. If passed along with the state budget, the deferrals would take effect for tax years beginning Jan. 1, 2010, and developers worry that they will be forced to repay investors who don’t get the tax credits they were promised. [WSJ]

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From left: an Absolut ad, Brooklyn Beep Marty Markowitz and director Spike Lee

Absolut Vodka has announced that it will donate $50,000 to the New York City chapter of Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit group that helps build homes for the less fortunate, according to the Brooklyn Eagle. The donation will be used toward the construction of low-income housing in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The contribution will be presented at an affordable construction site at 514 Lafayette Avenue tomorrow, where filmmaker Spike Lee and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz will be on hand for the presentation. [Brooklyn Paper]

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From left: an Absolut ad, Brooklyn Beep Marty Markowitz and director Spike Lee

Absolut Vodka has announced that it will donate $50,000 to the New York City chapter of Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit group that helps build homes for the less fortunate, according to the Brooklyn Eagle. The donation will be used toward the construction of low-income housing in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The contribution will be presented at an affordable construction site at 514 Lafayette Avenue tomorrow, where filmmaker Spike Lee and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz will be on hand for the presentation. [Brooklyn Paper]

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Omni New York, the affordable housing management company led by former New York Mets player Mo Vaughn, has just bought two more low-income housing complexes, according to Crain’s. The two Bedford-Stuyvesant housing centers, the Dr. Betty Shabazz complex and the Medgar Evers Houses, contain a total of approximately 470 units. Omni plans to launch a $10 million renovation effort there, which is slated to be complete by the end of 2011. The company successfully bid on 14 troubled South Bronx buildings at the end of 2009 and made its first purchase in Manhattan — a $5.5 million affordable housing building at 2059-71 Madison Avenue in Harlem — in January this year.

Despite an August court settlement in which Westchester County agreed to fund the construction of 750 affordable housing units,  builders of affordable housing are feeling uneasy about leaping into the market, according to the New York Times. Ron Moelis, a Yonkers-based low-income housing developer with L&M Development Partners, said that, despite the recent county funding injection, it’s not yet clear how much interest there will be in funding low-income housing in the future. “There are not that many sources of funding for this kind of housing,” Moelis said. “To lose one of them would make future projects that much more difficult.”