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Keeping Watch on Atlantic Yards' Affordable Housing
October 16, 2012
The controversial Atlantic Yards project is here. The 18,000 seat Barclays Center opened with eight sold-out performances by Jay-Z. A date is set December 18th for the groundbreaking of the first residential tower but questions and concerns around developer Forest City Ratner's commitments to the affordable housing continue to cloud the project.
Currently, we know the details only on the first residential tower, B2, a 32-story, 363-unit building - and Tower B2 is generally meeting the MOU commitments for affordable housing, with some exceptions. Half of the apartments (181 units) will be affordable units. The income breakdowns, although close to the original agreement, now skew slightly towards higher income households. Moderate-income household units (60-100% AMI) have been halved from 40% of units to 20% to make room for 36 middle-income (140-160% AMI). And the lower-income units (40% of total units) will accommodate the higher end of 30-50% AMI, with few units for very-low income households (30-40% AMI). Most notably, only 19% of Tower B2's 181 affordable units will be family sized two-bedrooms instead of the previously agreed 50 percent.
We do not know if these unmet pledges will be corrected in the project's future residential buildings by adding more family units and more very-low and moderate income units. Or if instead, Atlantic Yards will continue to slip away from its signed commitment to provide affordable housing opportunities. However, on the whole, the development is honoring its commitment to build an impressive 50% share of rentals as affordable housing. While housing advocates should continue to keep watch, Atlantic Yards' affordable housing set-aside is far beyond what any other private development has committed to in recent times.
The greater challenge for the project's affordable housing is a broader citywide problem. The incomes used to qualify for affordable housing are still far too expensive for the average Brooklyn resident or any New Yorker, and definitely too expensive for most residents in the surrounding neighborhoods. A family of 3 would need to earn $100,000-$120,000 dollars to qualify for a 140-165% AMI or "middle-income" 2-bedroom apartment at Atlantic Yards - and for most of the "affordable" housing being built in our city. That's around double the median income of $59,000 for a 3-person household in New York. The City must address this huge gap through better income targeting and working with HUD to revise how the City's AMI is closer in-line with actual incomes. Current and future private developments that included significant affordable housing will continue to be viewed as unsuccessful, as long as they are too expensive for the community and for most New York City residents.