Government briefs

Developers snub affordable housing in Queens

Developers largely ignored Queens when applying to build affordable housing through the city’s Inclusionary Housing Program over the last year, city data showed. Experts said both the city’s bureaucratic zoning and ignorance about program rules are to blame. Under the program, developers can only build in designated areas, a list that includes few parts of Queens. The voluntary program received 58 applications from Jan. 1, 2014, to March 26, 2015: 30 for Brooklyn, 26 for Manhattan and two for the Bronx, DNAinfo reported. Hot Brooklyn neighborhoods like Williamsburg, Greenpoint and Fort Greene saw the most applications. In September, the de Blasio administration presented a still-unapproved policy under which developers would be required to include affordable housing in certain areas, which may include Queens neighborhoods like Long Island City and Flushing West, along with Staten Island’s Bay Street Corridor.

Chinatown

City holds off on Chinatown zoning plan

Community groups in Chinatown have had no luck getting City Hall to accept a rezoning proposal that calls for a special district aimed at maintaining the neighborhood’s affordability. The plan would employ multiple strategies, including limiting density in some areas and encouraging affordable housing development in others, City Limits reported. City Planning said the special district “is not feasible at this time.” Ambiguity about what parts of the plan the city might adopt has infuriated some backers. Tensions have been high since the 2008 rezoning of the East Village, which critics charged preserved the low-rise character of that “wealthier and white community” while increasing density in areas near Chinatown. Critics of the community proposal say it goes against the goal of bringing more affordable housing to the neighborhood.

Morris Houses

NYCHA repairs drag on a year after suit: lawyer

More than a year after tenants of Morris Houses in the Bronx filed suit against the city Housing Authority, residents are still living with mice, mold, leaks and other unfinished repairs, their lawyer told DNAinfo. The lawsuit first went to Housing Court in September 2014, and a settlement reached in early November said the apartments would be fixed within 90 days. When that deadline passed, Urban Justice Center senior staff attorney Garrett Wright said tenants filed a contempt of court motion in May. Wright charged NYCHA’s repairs were mostly cosmetic in some apartments, and the underlying problems were not corrected. NYCHA defended the work done so far, saying in a statement it made “substantial progress” toward addressing the repairs.

Scott M. Stringer

Over 1M New Yorkers live in crowded homes: report

A report from Comptroller Scott Stringer found nearly 1.5 million New Yorkers lived in 272,533 crowded dwellings as of 2013. The city considers a unit crowded when the number of residents exceeds the number of rooms. In 2005, 7.6 percent of NYC housing units were overcrowded. By 2013, it was 8.8 percent, DNAinfo reported. The Bronx had the most crowded households, followed by Brooklyn and Queens. The median rent paid by tenants living in crowded apartments rose almost five times faster than their median income: 12.8 percent versus 2.7 percent, according to City Limits. While the number of studio apartments increased 45 percent from 2005 to 2013, the number of studio apartments shared by three or more people skyrocketed 579 percent.