Gothamist: A Victory for Affordable Housing

Blike Moomberg

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 18:42:56 -0500

How about NO subsidies for luxury developers, period? Why should we pay for something that we can't use? The poor pay little taxes, the rich don't carry as much of the tax burden, compared to the middle class. The middle class takes the brunt of the taxes, but are too "rich" to be eligible to live in the very housing that their taxes paid for. Oh wait, we like this scheme. That's why we re-elected Bloomberg with our eyes wide open. Bloomberg used this very same nonsense scheme for many projects over the past few years.

Perry

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 16:54:25 -0500

The whole way that housing affordability is addressed is so skewed its ridiculous. People need to step back and realize a simple rule. The price of something is highly related to the cost of something. Developers don't build luxury housing because thats their favorite thing (even if it might be), they do it because its the only thing that you can build in this city and earn a return on your investment. I know its out of the grasp for most non-developers to try to do, but pencil out how much it would cost you to buy a piece of land, spend upwards of $175-200 per square foot in construction and labor costs, and also pay for financing and interest costs in order to wait the multiple years it takes to get approvals for most any kind of project, then pay for the construction and permanent financing fees. You literally can not make it work in many cases. Anywhere it does work you realize things like - "Wow, I need to sell these one bedroom apartments for half a mil a piece to many any money at all!" The people in power, if they actually cared about housing affordability for all of us, would find ways to actually reduce the cost of building, so that people that actually do it can get it done at a cheaper price.

Michael

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 14:14:59 -0500

Prediction: This will lead to less housing being built overall and less affordable housing.

anomalous

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 12:11:24 -0500

moxie, go to the NYC Affordable Housing Resource Center website.

ugh

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 11:31:34 -0500

so a family of four making 60K is on their own yeah, way to help the "middle class" this only shows that politicians only care about the rich and poor

LIRC

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 10:49:32 -0500

no more than 80%? of household income? That does not sound right, or affordable.

good luck

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 10:38:37 -0500

In typical fashion the income cutoff will probably be too low for the truly middle class. Politicians think you're rich if you make a dime above the median.

moxie

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 10:24:40 -0500

Here's my question: How does one get in on these fabulously affordable apartments in the new buildings? Is there a good way of finding out about these buildings when they're under construction?