Nearly 90,000 apply for 200 affordable units in Brooklyn (New York, York: real estate, affordable apartments)

[antinimby]

Nearly 90,000 applications for affordable apartments at City Point in Downtown Brooklyn | Brooklyn Daily Eagle

[availableusername]

Lol that is really sad. I would just get the F out of this city if I were that desperate for an affordable apartment. It's really not worth it. At all. Then again, I would not really pay anything to live in downtown brooklyn...

[fluttereagle]

I wish the government would stop meddling in the housing market. All this so 200 people can get cheap housing that they did not earn? This particular program is particularly difficult to unravel in terms of exactly how much it is costing the taxpayers. Here is a description of the 50/30/20 program: Mixed Income (50/30/20) – Directory of New York City Affordable Housing Programs – Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy.

Basically, NYC Housing Development Corporation loans the developer money with a below-market interest rate. Much of that loan is funded through tax-exempt bonds. Which means that other taxes must be higher to make up for the shortfall. How to calculate the subsidy per apartment is anyone's guess.

Additionally, capital flowing into these tax-exempt bonds would otherwise have flowed into other productive enterprises such as business expansion, creating more tax revenues and jobs.

[BPt111]

Originally Posted by antinimby

Nearly 90,000 applications for affordable apartments at City Point in Downtown Brooklyn | Brooklyn Daily Eagle

The demand is real in NYC it better to live in of nyc suburbs than the city right now

[Glacier Azure]

There are too many people and not enough housing for their means. It's only going to get worse until something pops.

[wawaweewa]

Wouldn't it be easier to relax zoning restrictions so that more housing can actually be built rather than wasting taxpayer money on these programs?

Seems to me like corruption and kickbacks are definitely involved.

[Jay649737]

Actually its a favor for favor situation. Building owner get great tax breaks for comitting 20%'of the building as affordable. If they didnt get a deal they wont need to share 20%.. I am moderate class 65k+ this doesnt limit affordable. Anything under market rate is affordable. Ive seen affordable housing at an income of 140k+. A lot of you misunderstood. At my income i would need to move out of nyc city if my check was spent on rent of $45000 for a 2br making the owner richer. Buying a home/condo/coop is much smarter for the middle-moderate class NYkrs

[Gantz]

Originally Posted by wawaweewa

Wouldn't it be easier to relax zoning restrictions so that more housing can actually be built rather than wasting taxpayer money on these programs?

That would involve too much common sense.

The people who are opposed to new developments are the same people who complain about the lack of affordable housing.

[nightcrawler]

if the land wasnt so expensive the builders could build regular apartments for working class people instead of havong to be luxury all the time, and they have to be luxury to warrant the prices they charge.

we see 3K for one bedrooms, please, that is so not affordable to the average person...............

[Gantz]

Originally Posted by nightcrawler

if the land wasnt so expensive the builders could build regular apartments for working class people instead of havong to be luxury all the time, and they have to be luxury to warrant the prices they charge.

we see 3K for one bedrooms, please, that is so not affordable to the average person...............

The land is expensive because we have a limited amount of land, and its further constrained by the fact that developable land has so many restrictions put on it, like really low FAR limits. If you buy a plot of land for $2 million, and you are only allowed to build 8 apartments, don't be surprised if they go for $600k -1 million each and rent for 2-3k a month. If you want developers to build affordable units without tax subsidies, you have to free up the air rights, so they can build up on that expensive land. There should be a blanket increase in FAR in all of the areas around subway stops at least, to like 10 - 15 FAR, and not the current 3-5. That alone would triple the total available buildable square footage in the city.

In SF the median monthly rent is now $4,500 a month, but hey at least they enacted height restrictions to preserve those cardboard single family homes and crappy low rise apartment buildings.