Here's What's Happening To Affordable Homes On The LES

EAST VILLAGE, NY — Like neighborhoods throughout the city, affordable housing in the East Village and on the Lower East Side is increasingly under threat. A new report from the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development shows exactly where the neighborhood is losing affordable homes and trends that could indicate increasing development.

"The crisis of affordable housing is so much part of the daily experience of almost all New Yorkers that it’s the water we swim in," Benjamin Dulchin, the executive director of the association, said in a statement. "But some people and some neighborhoods are experiencing the crisis and the displacement pressure more severely, and with more devastating consequences to their families and their communities."

The report singled out the Lower East Side, the East Village and Chinatown as an area of concern because its a neighborhood where both fast-paced development continues to increase and because a concerning number of federally-funded affordable units in the neighborhood could soon expire.

The report, which studied districts across the city, shows that more than 1,000 new buildings in the East Village and Lower East Side were issued certificates of occupancy in 2017. The neighborhood saw more new tenants moving into new buildings than anywhere else in Manhattan except Chelsea and Midtown, according to the report.

The rate of new units being occupied can be cause for concern, the study notes, because "fast-paced residential development can put pressure on existing residents by increasing land values and rents."

More than 1,150 apartments on the Lower East Side and in the East Village are at risk of losing federal subsidies over the next four years.

"Expiring Federally-backed affordable units are a problem," the report says. "Buildings at risk of losing U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) subsidies for affordability are primarily in the Upper West Side, East Harlem, and the Lower East Side/Chinatown."

You can read the complete report here.

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