Only five apartment buildings built in Brooklyn between 2008 and 2012 included below-market-rate units, according to a new report from an affordable housing advocacy group.
In those five years, 61 buildings built in the borough will receive a total of $158 million in tax breaks, according to the report, released today by the Real Affordability for All Campaign. Only six percent of the nearly 4,440 units built were affordable for low- and moderate-income households.
“We know that the city is going to use subsidies to entice developers to build more, but if we’re going to do that, we need to produce maximum affordability in our units,” Jaron Benjamin, executive director of the Met Council on Housing, told the New York Daily News.
The study recommended that new residential developments should be 50 percent affordable and 50 percent market rate. But Steven Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, told the Daily News that the target was unfeasible.
“We all agree New York needs more affordable housing,” Spinola said, “but changes to policy should not be based on flawed studies like this.” [NYDN] -–Hiten Samtani