New York, NY —
Finding properties to create affordable housing has always been a daunting task for the city especially now that real estate prices are soaring and old resources are drying up. WNYC's Cindy Rodriguez takes a look at the new ways in which the city is trying to alleviate a longstanding housing crisis.
Piegeons were the last inhabitants of this cluster of old (1920's ) buildings on University Avenue in the Bronx. Their remnants are still caked on the stairwells and lobby floors. Years of leaking roofs have created slanted floors and damaged ceilings in these dilapidated yet ornate buildings that are currently undergoing a makeover. Developer Peter Magistro relishes the idea of transforming this property that has been sitting vacant for five years.
PETER: This is a four bedroom, 2 full bath apartment.look at the size of the living room. These are big, big apartments.
Once it's complete, the apartment will rent for 1027 dollars. Only families who earn less than 38-dollars a year will be eligible to live there. There are 180 apartments units in this 5 story affordable housing building. And Magistro has carefully contemplated the design for each one. He says the bathrooms will have pedestal sinks for a contemporary look and all the floors will be hardwood:
PETER: This goes to the concept of affordable housing not having to be cheap housing because when…..people walk into it and they see cheap cabinets and they look at tile floors they know and they don't treat it the same way …There's not to my knowledge restrictions on using hardwood floors….it's all eligible for tax credits.
These Bronx buildings have been sitting vacant for 5 years. There is also an empty lot next door. Magistro watches as bulldozers breakthrough layers of bedrock.
PETER: This is going to be a 30 unit building - I believe 8 stories.
The apartments will also be affordable. Building for low income New Yorkers is a challenge in a real estate market where only the wealthiest can compete for land. But in this case the land was free. The old dilapidated buildings were donated by the New York City Housing Authority. NYCHA is best known for managing 345 sprawling public housing projects throughout the city. But it also owns scattered buildings that it acquired in a variety of a different ways. General Manager Doug Apple says the University Avenue buildings were given to NYCHA by the city in the late 1970's.
APPLE: During that time the city was acquiring swaths of the South Bronx....
The buildings were handed over in poor condition and never got a proper renovation. Eventually they fell back into disrepair. Apple says NYCHA is good at managing large scale developments where there is staff on site to collect the rent and do maintenance:
APPLE: Managing these types of properties is much more difficult. They are a real challenge for NYCHA
The Department of Housing Preservation and Development is actively reviewing NYCHA's portfolio of properties to see what other land can be tapped. This aggressive search for property is needed because the city is running out of a valuable resource. For decades buildings taken from neglectful landlords who failed to pay their taxes have been turned over to private developers or non-profits who create affordable housing out of them. Sean Donovan is the Commissioner of Housing Preservation and Development:
DONOVAN: I remember growing up in New York City going to the 1977 World Series when the Yankees were playing in the Bronx and Howard Cossell pointed out to the outfield and said the Bronx is burning and literally there were hundreds of buildings being burnt down at the time....
The buildings were being burnt by landlords for insurance money. By the early 80's the city owned and managed over 100-thousand apartment units. Today, that number has dropped to 3-thousand citywide - and to zero in the South Bronx. Donovan called the buildings one of the most important affordable housing resources the city had:
DONOVAN: We are victims of our own success. Because of our success in renovating these buildings.we now have to figure out where the new pipeline will come from.
So far the city's Department of Housing has found 10 other properties owned by the New York City Housing Authority that can be used for affordable housing. Those will produce about 2-thousand new affordable apartment units. NYCHA says it has no more vacant buildings like the one on University Avenue and Doug Apple is concerned about building within the housing projects themselves:
APPLE: One of the reasons public housing works here is because they have open space, because they have gardens and playgrounds.
NYCHA is not the only government agency Donovan's staff is looking at.
DONOVAN: We're working with HUD, the Department of Housing and Urban Development in Washington to do a similar thing. We've identified about 5-thousand apartments that we can partner with them on.
Donvan says it also plans to look at the property portfolios of the Department of Transportation. The Bloomberg administration has pledged to create 65-thousand units of affordable housing by 2008. The apartments on University Avenue are a very small step toward that goal. Magistro says a certain percentage of the apartments have already been set aside for specific populations:
MAGISTRO: There's 10 percent homeless. Second there's 25 percent of NYCHA tenants coming back from people who lived here before that are allowed to come back….
And if those tenants have moved on NYCHA will tap into its waiting lists of more than 200-thousand families. The remaining apartments will be rented through a lottery system where thousands are expected to apply.