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Community action groups say AY clause is affordable housing loophole

Bruce Ratner

A new deal that state development officials are drafting could help Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner avoid meeting an obligation to include affordable housing in the Dumbo development. The Empire State Development Corporation inserted a clause into its lease proposal with Ratner that would allow the developer to bail on the construction of 2,250 affordable units, by claiming that such construction would be "subject to governmental authorities making available…affordable housing subsidies," the Brooklyn Paper reported. Candace Carponter, a lawyer who works with local advocacy group Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, says that the clause flies in the face of what the community wanted out of the Atlantic Yards development. "ESDC has quietly made the 'affordable' housing conditioned upon public subsidies, in contradiction with [the project's] approval document," Carponter said. [Brooklyn Paper]