Two new “affordable” housing developments in The Bronx are now accepting applications. Located in the…
Tag: Affordable Housing
Norwood Gardens, at 400 E 203rd Street and Webster Avenue is now accepting applications for…
La Central, The Bronx’s Massive 992 Unit Development in Melrose, Is Finally Approved by City Council
After almost three years since it was announced, the mega project La Central has moved one step closer to reality as New York City Council approved this development yesterday.
With 992 units planned, a 50,000 square foot YMCA, 10,000 square foot television studio for BronxNet, and also an astronomy lab and observation deck among many other features, La Central is one of the biggest mixed residential and commercial developments coming to The Bronx.
Development doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon in Melrose, The Bronx’s unofficial downtown neighborhood.
After a lull in construction for a few years, developments are either in the process of breaking ground, in the middle of construction, almost complete or just filing applications in the neighborhood.
The development and construction boom continues (frankly it hasn’t stopped since the rise of Melrose Commons which reached a crescendo in 2011 and picked up again last year) in The South Bronx and now yet another hotel is coming to the area along with a 12 story and a 13 story mixed-income “affordable housing” apartments.
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s housing plan to preserve and create 200,000 units of affordable housing is crumbling, Casita Maria searches for a new executive director as Sarah Calderon departs the organization after 7 wonderful years, and the Gould Memorial Library at Bronx Community College may be repurposed are some of the stories you’ll find here at Bronx PM Links.
Last week The Real Deal talked about how it appeared that certain developments may be responsible for a 9% increase in subway ridership in The Bronx between 2009 and 2014 and while that may be the case for a few of the stations, none of the others are proximate to actual new developments to account for increases as high as 34% at 176th Street on the 4 line.
While looking at the infographic above, there have been no major developments constructed in the East Bronx in Eastchester near the Gun Hill Road Station on the 5 Dyre Avenue line which saw a 28% increase in ridership and the same goes for Parkchester which saw a 19% jump. Kingsbridge and Bedford Park Boulevard along the 4 train, which saw a jump of 11% and 10% respectively also didn’t have any major new construction housing to account for such large increases.
Could lack of housing and truly affordable housing be the reason?
The Daily News just released an exclusive report on how some affordable tenants are paying high rents—something we’ve been saying all along how “affordable housing” isn’t truly affordable.
Just this year Courtlandt Corners, an “affordable housing” development in Melrose (built by Phipps) began calling one of their buildings The Upton in a media campaign that would pop up in online ads calling it “affordable luxury”.
“Nearly half of the affordable apartment tenants in a new survey say they’re now spending more than 30% of their income on rent — a level considered “rent-burdened.”
A stunning 14% say they’re spending more than 50% of their income on rent, which makes them “severely rent-burdened.”
The findings emerge in a report to be released Wednesday by the housing advocates Real Affordability for All.
In the first wave of construction in Melrose, over 3,000 units of “affordable” housing were constructed bringing thousands of new residents into the area and making the neighborhood the fastest growing neighborhood in The Bronx and 3rd fastest in New York City as per the 2010 census.
Now Melrose is experiencing its second wave of major construction as the last remaining parcels of what was once empty lots filled with the rubble of burnt out and abandoned buildings are being filled in with new affordable developments and even market-rate developments with over 2.1 million square feet of developments are in various phases of construction
Courtlandt Corners in Melrose, the development which comprises of Courtlandt Corners I & II and Courtlandt Crescent, has rebranded the phase II building on the northern side of 161st Street as ‘The Upton’ offering ‘affordable luxury living’ but at rents that are well above the neighborhood average and clearly are not affordable to the general area population.
Here’s an interesting piece on a topic close to home in The Bronx: Affordable Housing.
The article skims the surface of what is a tangled web in which affordable housing developers have to navigate which is so much deeper than Next City can even get into but it does speak briefly about the Jerome Avenue Study area and other parts of New York City.
In the summer of 2014, 53,000+ people applied to live in 89 affordable apartments at Artspace PS109. This has become an all too common scene in New York City’s housing market. Decades of public subsidies and assistance for luxury development in NYC have increased property values and rents all across the city. This rise has led to the displacement of working- and middle-class families. The main “community benefit” in return for publicly assisted displacement has been the opportunity to enter an affordable housing lottery and hope Yolanda Vega calls your number, allowing you to remain.
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