Affordable housing projects by area
The city invested $1.25 billion during fiscal year 2011, which ended June 30, to create 3,873 units of affordable housing, and preserve 11,771 more for existing tenants, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other city officials announced today. That investment is part of the $8.5 billion New Housing Marketplace Plan initiated in 2004 to build and preserve some 165,000 affordable housing units in the city by 2014. The city is now more than three-quarters towards that goal, having invested in 124,510 affordable homes, 41,556 of which are newly constructed.
The initiative also created 120,000 full-time equivalent, construction-related jobs.
“No other municipality is delivering affordable housing for its people on anywhere near the scale of New York City,” said Marc Jahr, president of the Housing Development Corporation. “With new construction, we are bringing new life to neighborhoods. If anyone doubts this, I recommend taking a walk through Melrose, in the South Bronx. Every preservation deal brings new life to aging buildings and a guarantee of continued affordability for the tenants. A stroll along 135th Street in Harlem bears testament to this. Whole sections of this city are reborn and invigorated, thanks to the vision of the mayor and the New Housing Marketplace Plan.”
One of the major rehabilitation projects is West Farms Square in the Bronx. The HDC purchased the distressed loan on the project from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, and through loans and tax credit equity, repaired and installed new windows, boilers, flooring and facades. Many individual units in the 526-home complex will be upgraded, too, with new kitchens, bathrooms, and fixtures. The initiative ensures housing in the complex will remain affordable for at least another 40 years. — Adam Fusfeld