From City Limits, New York’s Urban Affairs News Magazine:
“I’m getting ready to pay my debt, and here it is!” said Bertha Lewis and then turned to Mayor Bloomberg and kissed him squarely on the lips. The executive director of New York ACORN had done it again…
The occasion was the signing of a memorandum of understanding between ACORN and developer Forest City Ratner Companies, decreeing that 50 percent of the new housing to be built at Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards site will rent for less than market rate. “I’m a developer who in his heart wants to do the right thing,” said Bruce Ratner
Prospect Heights councilmember Letitia James, a critic of the Ratner development, responded to the housing deal with a mix of appreciation and skepticism. “The question is the 50 percent which is going to be market rate–it will have to be luxury housing. It’s a zero-sum game: the luxury will cancel out the low income,” said James. “The market prices will have to be high to subsidize the affordable housing and the arena.”
Link: Cozy Quarters: Acorn and Ratner Sign Housing Deal [City Limits]
more about that ACORN kiss
also:
In the housing MOU between FCR and ACORN there are a few key things that are troubling:
1. No housing agency is signed on to it.
2. Nothing in it is binding (other than confidentiality)
3. There is no penalty for ACORN or FCR if the housing plan doesn’t happen.
4. Its not clear which housing schedule will be used of the 3 (140%, 150%, 160% of Area Median Income (AMI) and AMI is already skewed high because it includes westchester and long island, NYC AMI is much lower) mentioned in the MOU.
5. If the financing isn’t there, it doesn’t happen, and since this is the largest plan of its kind, ever, there is a good chance the financing can’t happen to the extent proposed.
I know this is a policy question, but if they use , say, the 150% AMI schedule then 40% of the 1 person units (studios and 1 bdrms) will be priced at rents of 1,300-1,600, which are rents I can go to a broker to today and get. (see the excel sheet we put together based on 140% and 150%)