Housing Starts: City Moves to Speed NYCHA Evictions | Co-living for Millenials

November 10th 2015

Photo via Politico

  1. Study Finds Revised Property-Tax Break May Be More Lucrative Than Old One Proposed changes to a property-tax break called 421-a—most notably a requirement that all developers include affordable housing in new projects receiving the benefit—would not stifle construction activity in New York City, according to a study released Monday. In fact, under the changes proposed by the de Blasio administration, construction rental projects would become even more lucrative than under the old program. [Crain’s NY – 11/09/15]
  2. City Moves to Speed Evictions from NYCHA Developments The mayor is moving to tackle criminal activity in NYCHA developments. According to the Daily News, Mayor Bill de Blasio will institute policies to speed the eviction of of those with criminal records living at New York City Housing Authority complexes. He’s also looking to expand on what warrants an eviction from the public housing developments. For example, previously, only crimes committed on NYCHA property were grounds for eviction. Now, the plan is to account for crimes committed anywhere by someone who gives an NYCHA address. Tenants aren’t always the ones committing the crimes. Sometimes, it’s people who are staying on the property, but aren’t actually tenants. The new policies would target them as well. The goal is to expedite the process of eviction. It currently takes anywhere from two days to several months for police to refer a case to the housing authority and two weeks to several more months for legal action to begin. The new target timeframe: two weeks from arrest to eviction.” [Curbed NY – 11/08/15]
  3. Obama Takes Steps to Help Former Inmates Find Jobs and Homes Mr. Obama also unveiled a series of small initiatives intended to make it easier for former prisoners to find jobs and live in subsidized housing, moves that were important less for their individual effect than for the momentum they continue. Collectively, they reflect a belief that former inmates should have greater leeway to apply for jobs and housing without disclosing criminal records. [NY Times – 11/02/15]
  4. City Clamping Down on Hotel Projects in M1 Districts Hotel developers are about to find their jobs a little bit tougher after the de Blasio administration and City Council reached an agreement on zoning changes that would limit new hotels in Industrial Business Zones. The agreement is part of a larger plan to grow the city’s manufacturing and industrial center and comes as hotel development has become increasingly common in areas of the city zoned for industrial use. While those districts — including areas zoned M1 for light manufacturing uses — were created to boost the city’s manufacturing industry, they have also permitted hotel to be built as-of-right, according to the New York Observer. That has spurred a surge in hotel development, particularly in outer borough neighborhoods like Bushwick and Long Island City, in recent years. [The Real Deal – 11/03/15]
  5. Coliving - A Solution for Lonely Millennials? Commonspace, as Creator Troy Evans is calling it, will feature 21 microunits, which each pack a tiny kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and living space into 300-square-feet. The microunits surround shared common areas including a chef’s kitchen, a game room, and a TV room. Worried about the complicated social dynamics of so many Millennials in one living unit? Fear not, Evans and partner John Talarico are hiring a “social engineer” who will facilitate group events and maintain harmony among roommates. [...] Millennials, Evans says, want the chance to be alone in their own bedrooms, bathrooms, and kitchens, but they also want to be social and never lonely (hence #FOMO). ‘We’re trying to combine an affordable apartment with this community style of living, rather than living by yourself in a one-bedroom in the suburbs. [The Atlantic – 11/06/15]
  6. Landlords Fail To List 50,000 N.Y.C. Apartments for Rent Limits In late August, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other top New York officials announced an unusual crackdown on landlords. Nearly 200 building owners were collecting big tax breaks under a program to spur housing, officials said, but hadn’t registered their apartments for rent stabilization as the law requires. “We will not tolerate landlords who break the law and deny their tenants rent-regulated leases, plain and simple,” Cuomo said in a statement at the time. With Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, the governor announced a new enforcement effort to clean up such abuses.But an investigation by ProPublica found that in reality, state and New York City officials have tolerated the problem for years — and ignored pleas to investigate. Nor is it limited to the building owners Cuomo and Schneiderman found — landlords have failed to register thousands of buildings for rent regulation, casting doubt on the legality of leases for about 50,000 apartments across the city. [ProPublica – 11/05/15]
  7. San Francisco Market-Rate Housing Battle Not Over Despite Prop. I Loss There was nothing conciliatory about the Yes on I post-election party Tuesday night, despite the fact that San Francisco voters had roundly rejected the group’s efforts to temporarily halt market-rate housing construction in the Mission District. Instead, campaign foot soldiers danced to salsa music in the courtyard of the Mission Neighborhood Centers on Capp Street. Inside, Proposition I organizers vowed to redouble their efforts to fight any new housing not limited to low-income residents. But if election results were a disappointment to those looking to halt market-rate housing in the Mission, it was a great night for affordable housing developers, who saw a $310 million affordable housing bond, Proposition A, pass with 72 percent of the vote. Using low-income housing tax credits and other funding mechanisms, that money can be leveraged at least 5 to 1, meaning that the bond could generate $1.5 billion of affordable building citywide with $300 million in the Mission alone. [San Francisco Chronicle – 11/07/15]
  8. Real Estate Shell Companies Scheme to Defraud Owners Out of Their Homes In Bedford-Stuyvesant and other pockets of the city, white-collar criminals are employing a variety of schemes to snatch properties from their owners. Often, they use the secrecy afforded to shell companies to rent out vacated properties until they are caught or sell them to third parties. Victims are left groping for redress, unable to identify their predators or even, in some cases, to prove a crime has been committed. [NY Times – 11/09/15]
  9. After Outcry, Pratt Lets Beloved Head Engineer Conrad Milster Keep Campus Housing Conrad Milster—Pratt’s Chief Engineer for the last 47 years and the man behind the Institute’s beloved (and recently-retired) New Year’s Eve steam whistle salute—has been granted permission to maintain his rent-free campus housing as a condition of his employment, according to a formal statement from Pratt Institue President Thomas Schutte sent to students, staff, faculty and alumni on Thursday evening. [Gothamist – 11/06/15]
  10. Brooklyn Heights Library Plan Clears Planning Commission Vote The City Planning Commission on Monday approved a controversial plan to redevelop the Brooklyn Heights Public Library, setting the stage for a possible showdown in the City Council before the end of the year. In a 10-0 vote, with two abstentions, the commission approved the proposal for the city to sell the library to developer Hudson Companies. The developer intends to construct a 36-story tower that would house 139 high-end condominiums. The building would include a new, refurbished and much smaller library of 21,500 square feet. The developer has also agreed to create 114 low- to moderate-income apartments elsewhere in the community district. [Politico – 11/02/15]
« Previous | The Stoop | Next »