Housing Starts:NYC a ‘Gated Community’ I Klein’s Housing Agenda I Task Force to Probe Landlords

February 20th 2015

Image Credit: Mayor’s Office

  1. NYC in Danger of Becoming ‘a Gated Community’ Rent costs are a severe burden for a third of New Yorkers, and the city is at risk of becoming a gated community unless it can solve its affordability crisis, housing experts said at a conference this morning. ‘The number one expense for New Yorkers,’ said Jack Nyman, executive director of the Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute and the organizer of the Implementing Affordable: New York’s Affordable Housing Crisis conference, said on Wednesday, ‘is living.’ Addressing a packed conference room at Baruch College — across the street from where, a fortnight ago, Mayor Bill de Blasio delivered his state of the city address — Nyman said that New York City is in danger of losing its character. Referring to the 70,000 people who applied for 38 affordable units in Williamsburg in December, Nyman said that the city is at risk of becoming ‘a gated community. [The Real Deal – 02/18/15]
  2. Klein Pushes NYCHA-Heavy Housing Agenda State Senator Jeff Klein and the Independent Democratic Conference want to reestablish state funding for the New York City Housing Authority, create a new middle-income housing tax credit, and revitalize the city’s Mitchell Lama housing stock. It’s all part of the I.D.C.’s 2015 housing agenda and the conference’s proposals to revitalize affordable housing across the state and improve the deteriorating stock of public housing in the city. Klein will present his plans to members of the New York State Housing Conference during a luncheon in Midtown today. [Capital NY – 02/19/15]
  3. New Task Force to Probe Landlords Who Harass Rent-Stabilized Tenants The city and state are rolling out a new task force to take on landlords who are trying to harass tenants into giving up their apartments. The task force will be empowered to sue landlords or even pursue criminal charges against them. The Tenant Harassment Prevention Task Force will investigate complaints that landlords are using tactics like disruptive and dangerous renovations and construction projects to force tenants to move out of rent-stabilized apartments, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday. [DNAinfo – 02/19/15]
  4. Affordable Housing: Tackling the Challenges Mayor Bill de Blasio’s ambitious affordable housing plan, though laudable, presents challenges, according to participants in a panel discussion Wed. during the ‘Implementing Affordable’ conference in Midtown South. The event was hosted by the Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute at Baruch College. The panel, entitled ‘Financing, Implementation and Architecture,’ included Paul Freitag, managing director, Jonathan Rose Cos.; Richard Froehlich, COO and general counsel, NYC Housing Development Corp.; William Stein, principal, Dattner Architects and Charles Brass, partner, Forsythe Street Advisors. Among the challenges, Stein said, is the regulatory process. ‘There are an incredible number of complex regulations and a bevvy of agencies that require approvals so to implement the Mayor’s plan, it’s critical to streamline the process.’ [GlobeSt. – 02/18/15]
  5. Uniting Against Divisions: Dyker Heights Residents, Pols Battle Illegal Home Conversions Residents of Dyker Heights are declaring war on illegal home conversions, and now local politicians are joining the fray with proposed laws to give the city more weapons for fighting the residential scourge. Two civic groups are holding a joint town hall meeting on illegal conversions in Dyker Heights on Feb. 26. The practice of dicing one- and two-family homes into multi-family apartments ispervasive in southern Brooklyn, locals say. The illegally altered buildings can lack light, fresh air, and safe exits,putting residents and firefighters in harm’s way. [Brooklyn Paper – 02/19/15]
  6. HUD Grants $6 Million to Help Oneida, Onondaga Nation, NY Tribes With Housing The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded grants totaling more than $6 million on Wednesday to eight New York Native American tribes for affordable housing projects. The federal Indian Housing Block Grants are designated for low-income families living in Native American communities. In Central New York, the grant recipients are the Oneida Nation ($801,449), the Cayuga Nation ($373,575) and Onondaga Nation ($50,282), HUD officials said. [Syracuse – 02/18/15]
  7. Sunnyside Yards Development Will Be Costly and Time-Consuming, Experts Say Mayor Bill de Blasio ‘s plan to build thousands of affordable apartments over the railroad tracks at Sunnyside Yards might not make it out of the station because of a hefty expected price tag, experts say. The mayor proposed building some 11,250 affordable units at the rail yards during his State of the City speech earlier this month. And while experts say it can be done — pointing to projects like Atlantic Yards and Hudson Yards — they predict it will be costly and time-consuming. ‘We sort of learned how to do them in the modern era, but they’re expensive,’ said Barry Hersh, a clinical associate professor at New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate. [DNAinfo – 02/19/15]
  8. Not a Group House, Not a Commune: Europe Experiments With Co-Housing In an abandoned building near Spain’s Mediterranean coast, someone softly strums a guitar. Chord progressions echo through empty halls. It’s an impromptu music lesson, offered among unemployed neighbors in Alfafar, a suburb south of Valencia. The town was built in the 1960s for timber factory workers. It’s high-density housing: tidy, identical two- and three-bedroom apartments, in huge blocks — some 7,000 housing units in total. But the local timber industry has since collapsed. More than 40 percent of local residents are now unemployed. A quarter of homes are vacant. Apartments that sold for $150,000 decades ago are going for 20,000 now. That guitar lesson is just one way residents are using their free time and empty space creatively. It’s here that two young Spanish architects saw potential. [NPR – 02/16/15]
  9. ‘421-a Paid For My Bidet’ More than 80 tenant advocates descended on New York’s ‘Billionaires’ Row’ Wednesday to protest against what they believe is an unfair tax break for the wealthy. The 421-a abatement program, which is set to expire in June, is meant to provide tax breaks for developers who provide affordable housing as part of their newly constructed buildings. While Mayor Bill de Blasio — who is planning to build or preserve a total of 200,000 affordable units in the city over 10 years — has used the tax breaks as an incentive to get developers to create affordable housing, some luxury projects have received the abatement without including any affordable units on site. Extell Development’s One57, which is home to the city’s first $100 million closed apartment sale, for example, does not include any below-market rate units. [The Real Deal – 02/18/15]
  10. U.S. 30-Year Mortgage Rates Rise to a Seven-Week High U.S. mortgage rates for 30-year loans rose to a seven-week high, increasing borrowing costs from close to historic lows. The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 3.76 percent, up from 3.69 percent last week, Freddie Mac said in a statement Thursday. The average 15-year rate climbed to 3.05 percent from 2.99 percent, the McLean, Virginia-based mortgage-finance company said. An improving U.S. job market is leading to speculation that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates, while the European Central Bank’s embracing of monetary stimulus has pushed up yields for the government bonds that guide mortgages. [Bloomberg Business – 02/19/15]
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