The New NYC Housing Connect Image Credit: HPD

NYC Housing Connect tool intends to make affordable housing searches a more user-friendly experience. On June 16, 2020, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the launch of “NYC Housing Connect,” an online tool for finding and applying for affordable housing. The new system provides upgrades from its predecessor through a collaborative effort by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, user-design experts and collected public feedback.

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HPD ramps up enforcement against landlords with multiple violations. Image Credit: NYC HPD

HPD picked 250 buildings with over 41,000 violations for enhanced enforcement. In 2019, the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) launched the Anti-Harassment Unit (AHU) to keep tenants safe and to hold owners and landlords accountable for leaving homes in disrepair. On March 4, 2020, HPD announced that the AHU filed actions for nearly $400,000 against two building owners in court. Each building owner operates three buildings in Manhattan and the Bronx. (read more…)

Image Rendering of proposed building at 816 Herkimer Street, Cluster 2 Image Credit: City Planning

HPD’s Open Door Program a key facet of Rochester Suydam application. On February 26, 2020, the City Council Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Sitings and Dispositions heard the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and BJF Development’s application for the disposition of City owned property, the designation of an Urban Development Action Area and the approval of a property tax exemption under Article XI of the Private Housing Finance Law. The approval would facilitate the development of seven new buildings and 78 affordable homeownership units in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. The application was approved by the City Planning Commission on February 19, 2020. To read CityLand’s prior coverage of the Rochester Suydam project click here.

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Image Credit: NYC HPD

The addition of over 25,000 affordable homes brings the City’s total affordable homes financed since 2014 to over 147,000. On February 3, 2020, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development announced that the City financed 25,889 homes in 2019. Of this number, 15,692 affordable homes were preserved and another 10,197 new affordable homes were financed. (read more…)

Rendering of Beach 21st Street. Image Credit: HPD

Over 1,380 new affordable apartments were added to Far Rockaway since it was rezoned in 2017. On January 15, 2020, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development announced a new plan to add 793 affordable apartments to revitalize and strengthen neighborhoods in the Downtown Far Rockway area of Queens. Units will be spread across three properties – RadRoc, Beach 21 and Rockaway Village, and will include units set aside for the formerly homeless and individuals with extremely low to moderate incomes. These units will be built in addition to the 590 units financed following the New York City Council’s vote to rezone in Far Rockaway in September 2017. (read more…)

Rendering of Proposed Development at 35-37 Rochester Avenue Image Credit: City Planning

Affordable homeownership project receives generally positive feedback. On January 22, 2020, the City Planning Commission heard an application by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development for the disposition of city-owned property and to designate three areas in the southern portion of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn as Urban Development Action Areas. The UDAAP designation would help facilitate the construction of seven new buildings and 78 affordable homeownership units. Felipe Cortez, a borough planner at HPD and Jack Heaney from Fulcrum Properties presented the application.

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