New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development has officially launched its new homeownership program aimed at first-time home buyers, called Open Door, with construction on a new affordable cooperative development in Williamsbridge.
Called Sidney House and located at 839-841 Tilden Street, the $29 million, 57 unit building will have one bedroom units starting at $188,823 to three bedroom units at $326,000 once completed according to Curbed.
Curbed reports: “Homeownership is a dream for so many working families, and Open Door is staying true to its name and making that dream a reality by breaking down many of the barriers to entry many New Yorkers face,” said HPD Commissioner Maria Torres-Springer, in a statement.
Just like NYC’s “affordable” housing units, these will also be sold via a lottery to income-qualifying residents (income guidelines have yet to be formally released) and will remain affordable for up to 40 years.
We’ve been saying for years that in order to address gentrification and the affordability crisis, every single affordable development should have some homeownership component to it like Via Verde in Melrose which mixes rental tenants and cooperative homeowners together in one development.
We can’t combat displacement without providing opportunities for people to own property in their neighborhoods and while we applaud this new development, we’d be remiss to not say that this must be done in all developments.
Why not create this opportunity even in existing ones? What are the hurdles that are preventing us from doing so?
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