Housing Starts: Tenants Beg For Heat | Housing for Ex-Prisoners | Landlords: Mayor Ignores Plight

Photo by Robert Fernandez

1. Sheepshead Bay’s Tenants Say They’re Begging for Heat Tenants of the Sheepshead Bay’s Nostrand Houses (2955 Avenue W) say their landlord, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), has failed to deliver heat as the temperatures plummeted in recent weeks. The “heat season” began October 1. That’s the time when landlords in New York City are required to keep apartments at a minimum of 68 degrees during the day when temperatures drop below 55. At night, when temperatures dip below 40 degrees, it must be at least 55 indoors. [Sheepshead Bites – 11/05/14]
2. Can Data Officially Link Housing for Ex-Prisoners and Public Safety? Housing restrictions are just one of a host of collateral sanctions for criminal offenders passed by Congress during the middle years of the War on Drugs — and public housing authorities used the opportunity to enact a range of discretionary policies, many of which seem needlessly severe in retrospect. Municipalities have been dialing back in recent years, and a New York City pilot program may yield data that emboldens others to follow suit. [Next City – 11/06/14]
3. Landlords Say de Blasio Ignores Their Plight First he raised water and sewer rates. Then he helped engineer the skimpiest rent increases in the history of rent regulation. After that came the threats to mandate more investment in energy efficiency. Next was a law to publicly shame landlords who harass tenants. Almost a year into the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio, many New York City landlords say they are not feeling the love. [The New York Times – 11/05/14]
4. Feds to Investigate Flood-Zone Properties Within the next six months, a team dispatched by the Federal Emergency Management Agency will touch down here to conduct an extensive audit of the city’s flood zones. The effort, officially termed a Community Assistance Visit, aims to assess how well New York City is complying with the agency’s National Flood Insurance Program, which will eventually cover roughly 70,000 buildings with a federally-backed mortgage in the newly expanded flood zone. The FEMA representatives will pick a handful of areas and examine construction performed there within the past five years. [Crains New York Business – 11/05/14]
5. Manhattan Office Leasing Cools in October As Subleasing Climbs Despite a slight office market slowdown throughout Manhattan in October, subleasing is on the rise, according to a monthly report from commercial brokerage Cassidy Turley. Four blocks of sublease space exceeding 45,000 square feet hit the market last month. For the first time in five months, the available supply of sublease grew to more than 4.5 million. [The Real Deal – 11/06/14]
6. Sunset Park Locals Blast Plan to Add Affordable Units in Library Overhaul The Brooklyn Public Library wants to expand Sunset Park’s branch and add affordable housing — but locals are demanding an even bigger library without residential units, which they say “smells like gentrification. More than 75 residents attended a meeting Monday with library officials who presented a plan to demolish the current branch, located at 5108 Fourth Ave., and construct an eight-story building with 54 affordable apartments in its place. [DNAinfo – 11/04/14]
7. Pan Am and Westway Set to Become Permanent Homeless Shelters, City Says At least two emergency homeless shelters that opened this year in Queens, including the controversial site at the former Pan Am Hotel, will become permanent facilities, officials said. The former Pan Am Hotel, which opened June 5 as an emergency shelter for families, and the Westway in East Elmhurst, which opened July 9 as a families with children shelter after operating as an overnight shelter, are now beginning the process of transitioning into permanent shelters, according to the Department of Homeless Services. [DNAinfo – 11/05/14]
8. TF Cornerstone Scores Construction Loan for 606 West 57th Street TF Cornerstone landed a $384 million construction loan for its 80/20 rental development at 606 West 57th Street from a consortium of banks led by Wells Fargo,Mortgage Observer can exclusively report. Buffalo, N.Y.-based M&T Bank and Germany-based Helaba also participated in the deal, with each lender taking about one third of the loan, sources said. The loan carries a term of four years plus extension options and is funded through 80/20 bond financing from the state Housing Finance Agency, according to two people privy to the negotiations. [Commercial Observer – 11/05/14]
9. Seniors Face ‘Deplorable Conditions’ at Assisted Living Facility, Pols Say Frail seniors at a Park Slope assisted living facility are being forced to live in “deplorable conditions” and state officials are doing nothing to help them, families and elected officials are charging. Hallway lights have been darkened, rooms aren’t being cleaned, and the security desk isn’t staffed at Prospect Park Residence, according to residents’ family members and their attorneys. Meanwhile, the State Department of Health, which oversees the facility, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo have been silent on the seniors’ plight, City Councilman Brad Lander said in a statement. [DNAinfo – 11/05/14]
10. Japanese Firm in Talks to Buy Big Stake in Hudson Yards Tower-to-Be Japanese real estate investment firm Mitsui Fudosan is in talks to take a large stake in a planned office spire in the Hudson Yards west of Penn Station, according to several sources familiar with the deal. The company, which for years has owned the large midtown office building at 1251 Sixth Ave., is negotiating to invest in 55 Hudson Yards, a tower that developer Related Cos. is planning to build between West 33rd and West 34th streets along 11th Avenue [Crains New York Business – 11/06/14]