Mayor Bill de Blasio at his August 5 Press Conference Image Credit: Mayor’s Press Office

Mayor’s affordable housing announcement appears more retrospective than optimistic. On August 5, 2020, The Mayor’s Press Office released a statement touting the amount of affordable housing created in fiscal year 2020. The announcement states that the City preserved 23,520 homes and constructed 6,503 new units, totaling 30,023 affordable City financed homes. More than 50 percent of these homes serve families earning less than $52,000 and 3,600 people received voucher increases to ameliorate income lost from the COVID-19 pandemic.

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146 Wilson Street, Brooklyn. Image Credit: Google Maps

HPD performed an emergency excavation without giving owner time to comply. The Trustee of a family Trust hired three workers to excavate soil on the Trust’s Brooklyn property to fix an emergency condition at 146 Wilson Street, Brooklyn. The three workers were trapped when the excavation collapsed. The City Department of Buildings issued a full stop order to the Trustee for excavations without a permit. The Housing Preservation & Development Department then advised the Trustee that unless the Trust immediately obtained approval from the Buildings Department to do the work, HPD would correct the condition at the Trust’s expense. HPD gave the Trustee three days to request that Buildings approve. The Trust contacted Buildings the same day. HPD, however, commenced to correct the condition without waiting the three days. New York City subsequently billed the Trust for the remedial work in the amount of $338,592.56. (read more…)

Co-Op City, Bronx. Image Credit: NYC HPD

The City has now produced more than 164,000 units or more than 50 percent of the Mayor’s Housing plan to create 300,000 affordable homes by 2026. On April 3, 2020, Housing Preservation and Development announced the preservation of 16,083 affordable homes for New Yorkers. (read more…)

Council Member Rafael Espinal Jr./Image Credit: John McCarten and New York City Council

The law will help provide more opportunities for small businesses to remain in the City. On February 23, 2020, Introduction 1408-B was enacted into Local Law 35 of 2020. Introduction 1408-B requires developers to set aside affordable retail space for non-chain retailers within large City-funded affordable housing developments. The requirement will apply to certain affordable housing developments of at least 750,000 square feet that receive $15 million or more in City funds. The law, sponsored by Council Member Rafael Espinal, Jr., was proposed in response to the challenges local retailers face to remain in the City such as the recent increases in retail space rent and competition from chain stores.

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Image Credit: NYC HPD

City placed apartment building in program that forces owners to correct severe code violations. In February 2015, Trump Presidential Inc. purchased a three-story apartment building located in St. Albans, Queens. Trump filed a property registration form with New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development. A few months later, HPD selected the property for participation in the Alternative Enforcement Program. The program identifies the most distressed dwellings in the City and requires the owners to correct deficiencies and bring the buildings to compliance with the New York City Housing Code. A failure to comply with the request may result in substantial fines. (read more…)

Council Member Inez Barron/Image Credit: John McCarten

The development will bring 503 permanent housing units, both affordable and supportive, to East New York. On December 10, 2019, the City Council approved a land use application for the development of four mixed-use buildings to replace a three-story homeless shelter at 515 Blake Avenue in East New York, Brooklyn. The buildings will be a combination of residential use, commercial use, and community facilities. The land use application, submitted by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, includes a rezoning to a residential district that allows taller and wider buildings to support the project’s size, a transfer of formerly City-owned land to HELP-USA, the project’s developer, a modification of bulk regulations, and a Mandatory Inclusionary Housing designation. The Council modified the project from providing temporary and permanent housing to providing only permanent housing.

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