Bloomberg outlines affordable housing funding plans

The Bloomberg administration is planning to use the sluggish residential development market to its advantage by offering incentives to developers who build affordable housing, the mayor said in his weekly radio address on 1010 WINS. “In today’s economy, incentives that our City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development can offer in exchange for affordability commitments… look a lot more attractive,” he explained. His administration is aiming to build or preserve half a million affordable housing units by 2014, and he said it is on track to do that. On the distressed housing front, the city is converting stalled condo projects into even more affordable housing, and has slotted $750 million for low-cost refinancing and repair loans that will encourage multi-family building owners in danger of default to prevent apartments from deteriorating. To pay for all of this by the 2014 goal, the city’s Housing Development Corporation will provide $1 billion in funds, none of which will come from taxpayers, Bloomberg said. In addition, the New York City Housing Authority is on its way to securing $100 million per year in Federal funds to upgrade and maintain 18,000 public housing units, thanks to the recently-passed bill in the State Legislature, supporting the bid, he added. TRD