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New Year, New Homes for Staten Island: Plan to Transform Sanitation Garage Into 232 Affordable Homes Moves Forward on Staten Island

Mon, 30 Dec 2024 17:36:10 GMT

HPD announces selection of development team to convert city-owned sanitation garage on the North Shore of Staten Island into housing with a grocery store, community services, and world class open space.
Hillside Grove on Jersey Street is part of the administration's 24 in 24 Initiative to create and preserve housing on city-owned land.

NEW YORK, NY – This afternoon, the City revealed plans to create affordable housing alongside a grocery store, community space and open space at a site currently occupied by a sanitation garage in Staten Island. Today, the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) announced the development team and the plans that will transform the garage, long considered an eyesore and nuisance for the neighborhood, into affordable housing as well as a hub of new amenities for the community.

As the City prepares to ring in the New Year, HPD Commissioner Adolfo Carrion Jr. elaborated on the meaning of this project, “Hillside Grove is a promise of hope, renewal and community building for Staten Island’s North Shore. This project will transform a long overlooked site into 232 affordable homes, vibrant green spaces, and essential neighborhood services—giving families a place to thrive. Staten Island deserves housing that celebrates its strong sense of community and its yearning for affordable high-quality living. This development is a shining example of what’s possible when we collaborate to invest in our neighborhoods and our neighbors’ futures.”

“This administration has made it a priority to utilize publicly owned land by city agencies to create affordable housing,” said Executive Director for Housing Leila Bozorg . “That is why I am thrilled to see Volunteers of America-Greater New York, Spatial Equity Co., and Nehemiah HDFC were designated to transform a DSNY garage into an affordable housing community equipped with both rental and homeownership opportunities for Staten Islanders. This project will set the bar for the type of innovative and sustainable projects that could be realized on former city agency owned land.”

The Site & Development Team: Hillside Grove on Jersey Street

The NYC Department of Sanitation (DSNY) garage at 539 Jersey Street on the North Shore of Staten Island will be transformed into “Hillside Grove,” a mixed-use affordable housing development. Hillside Grove will be developed through a collaboration between notable affordable housing partners: Volunteers of America - Greater New York, Spatial Equity Co., and Nehemiah HDFC.

"Homeownership is a key tool for housing stability and the creation of generational wealth," said Arshad Bacchus, Managing Director of Nehemiah HDFC . "Nehemiah was pleased to see the release of this RFP that allowed for the creation of much needed affordable homeownership opportunities. We are proud to partner with the amazing folks at Volunteers for America – Greater New York and Spatial Equity and looking forward to this transformative project."

"Spatial Equity is delighted to partner with VOA-GNY and Nehemiah HDFC to deliver homeownership opportunities, deeply affordable housing and environmental justice to Staten Island's North Shore," said Teg Sethi, Principal of Spatial Equity Co . "We are grateful to HPD, Councilmember Hanks and the Adams administration for their commitment to keep housing affordable for Staten Islanders."

“Everyone deserves an affordable, safe, and comfortable place to call home,” said Jeffrey Ginsburg, President & CEO of Volunteers of America-Greater New York . “It is a privilege to contribute to the broader revitalization of Staten Island’s North Shore through the transition of this sanitation depot into desperately needed affordable housing. We are excited to lend our expertise as a leading non-profit housing developer and a trusted provider of social services to this transformational project. Hillside Grove is a powerful example of what can be achieved when a once-in-a-generation investment is made to realize the vision of community members.”

Hillside Grove is designed by Purpose by Design Architects, a purpose-driven M/WBE design collaborative dedicated to promoting healthy, sustainable, and inclusive spaces at all scales.

They envision Hillside Grove as an urban sanctuary promoting community and well-being, drawing inspiration from the sloping terrain, historic homes, and lush tree canopy of the neighborhood. The design of the project includes 4- and 5-story buildings and embodies the concepts of health and wellness, aging in place, universal and inclusive design, active design, zero waste, and trauma informed design.

Hillside Grove is designed to include public spaces around the perimeter of the site, including a public plaza at the corner of Jersey Street and Victory Boulevard for bus riders and grocery store customers, a public plaza at Brook Street, and widened sidewalks with shaded seating along Jersey Street. An interior courtyard for residents will provide passive open space as well as a jogging path, community garden, recreation space, and a seating area.

Hillside Grove will employ several sustainability strategies including Passive House certification, a geothermal energy system, mid-door gardens, and rooftop solar. The development will utilize stormwater management and heat mitigation strategies including planting over 100 trees, green roofs, retention ponds, dry wells, porous pavement and rainwater capture and storage.

Building Breakdowns + Amenities

Highlights of Hillside Grove include:

232 affordable homes across three residential buildings, including a
senior building with 90 homes, up to 60% AMI
multifamily rental building with 105 homes, up to 80% AMI
homeownership coop building
a grocery store,
community facility space,
below grade parking, and
more than 46,000 square feet of outdoor open space throughout the project.

The senior rental building: Hillside Grove will include a rental building targeted to older adults with approximately 90 homes affordable to those earning up to 60 percent of the area median income.

The multifamily rental building: Hillside Grove’s multifamily building will have approximately 105 affordable homes that will serve a mix of affordability levels from extremely low-income households to those earning up to 80 percent of the area median income.

The homeownership co-op building: the homeownership building will include approximately 37 affordable homes available for purchase by moderate-income households.

Extremely Low Income Households: Approximately two-thirds of the affordable homes at Hillside Grove will be reserved for extremely low and very low-income households, including approximately 60 homes reserved for families placed from the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) shelter system.

Amenities: In addition to the affordable housing, residential amenities at Hillside Grove will include
community rooms, space for residents including outdoor recreation space, exercise rooms, a classroom computer lab, laundry rooms, resident lounges;
jogging path for residents;
two “mid-door gardens,” which are designed as year-round indoor greenspaces with passive sustainability benefits; and
a grocery store and a community facility space that will be programmed by local partners.

Services: Volunteers of America - GNY will provide senior services in the senior building and supportive services and case management for the formerly homeless households in the senior and multifamily rental buildings.

The Planning Process + History of the Site

Originally highlighted as a development site in the 2019 Bay Street Rezoning, this project is an important step in furthering Mayor Adams’ North Shore Action Plan.

The competitive Jersey Street RFP process followed HPD’s extensive engagement for the site as part of the Bay Street Corridor Neighborhood Plan, which was led by the New York City Department of City Planning (DCP) and approved in 2019.

Council Member Kamillah M. Hanks added, “this transformative project is long overdue and a true game-changer for Staten Island’s North Shore. For years, the community has expressed the need for more affordable housing, accessible amenities, and vibrant public spaces. Hillside Grove represents the fulfillment of that vision—bringing affordable units that include senior housing, a much-needed grocery store, and community resources to the heart of Jersey Street.”

More recently, HPD completed a months-long community visioning process in 2023 which culminated in the publishing of a community visioning report. Development teams were evaluated on how they responded to the community priorities identified in the report.

With a nod to the thorough engagement process, Council Member Hanks added, “I want to thank the Adams administration and HPD for their commitment to bringing this long-awaited project to life and for listening to the voices of our community.”
Neighborhood Sanitation

Residents can still expect reliable sanitation service throughout the redevelopment process. Services based out of the garage, including vital cleaning, collection, and snow removal for the area, will be relocated to a new DSNY garage in Fresh Kills that is currently under construction by the New York City Department of Design and Construction (DDC).

The creation of affordable housing on this site is a multiagency effort and the sanitation department’s partnership is critical to ensuring the new homes can be created without impacting services in the area.

Neighborhood Sanitation

Residents can still expect reliable sanitation service throughout the redevelopment process. Services based out of the garage, including vital cleaning, collection, and snow removal for the area, will be relocated to a new DSNY garage in Fresh Kills that is currently under construction by the New York City Department of Design and Construction (DDC).

The creation of affordable housing on this site is a multiagency effort and the sanitation department’s partnership is critical to ensuring the new homes can be created without impacting services in the area.

24 in 24 Initiative

This project is the latest step in completing Mayor Adams’ “24 in 24” plan, first announced in his State of the City address in January 2024. Through the plan, the Adams administration is advancing 24 affordable housing projects on public sites in 2024 to create or preserve over 12,000 units of housing through partnerships across HPD, the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), and the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA).

So far in 2024, HPD has advanced affordable housing development on public land in the following ways:

Selecting a development team to construct approximately 116 homes for low-income families in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.
Selecting a development team to construct approximately 90 affordable homes and a community theater in an all-electric building in Mott Haven, in the Bronx.
Releasing the Stebbins Avenue RFP to seek proposals for new affordable housing on a city-owned lot in the Crotona Park East neighborhood of the South Bronx.
Releasing the Nevins and Third RFP to seek proposals for new affordable housing on two city-owned parking lots in the Boerum Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Launching the community engagement process to develop approximately 570 homes on city-owned land along the Harlem River waterfront in Inwood, Manhattan.
Launching the community engagement process for development of over 800 homes on city-owned land in Hunter’s Point South, Queens.
Launching the community engagement process in partnership with The New York Public Library (NYPL) for the redevelopment the Grand Concourse Library with a brand-new library and affordable housing on top.
Launching the community engagement phase of plans to develop a city-owned parking lot at 324 East 5th Street , in the East Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, currently used by the New York City Police Department (NYPD), into 100% affordable housing.

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The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) promotes quality and affordability in the city's housing, and diversity and strength in the city’s neighborhoods - because every New Yorker deserves a safe, affordable place to live in a neighborhood they love. We maintain building and resident safety and health, create opportunities for New Yorkers through housing affordability, and engage New Yorkers to build and sustain neighborhood strength and diversity. HPD is entrusted with fulfilling these objectives through the goals and strategies of Housing Our Neighbors: A Blueprint for Housing and Homelessness, Mayor Adams’ comprehensive housing framework. To learn more about what we do, visit nyc.gov/hpd and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @NYCHousing.

Affordable Housing Builds Wealth: Time to Change the Narrative! The Karen Hunter Show

Tue, 06 Jun 2023 00:49:48 GMT

Karen Hunter Show

Affordable Housing Builds Wealth: Time to Change the Narrative! The Karen Hunter Show

Kirk Goodrich – Affordable Housing Developer

Rev. David Brawley – St. Paul Community Baptist Church .

Rev. David Brawley on Building True Community Power

Sat, 01 Apr 2023 18:42:17 GMT

The Rev. David K. BrawleyScreenshot

Rev. David K Brawley, pastor of St. Paul’s Community Baptist Church in East New York, Brooklyn, and co-chair of the community organizing group Metro-IAF, talks with THE CITY’s Executive editor Alyssa Katz about what it takes to build lasting community power, the homeownership legacy of the Nehemiah Homes, what Mayor Eric Adams should know about mobilizing faith in politics and much more.

Hiding in plain sight, a housing solution

Tue, 25 Oct 2022 19:27:34 GMT

The conventional wisdom declares that, after four decades of renovation and new construction, the only way to increase the number of affordable housing homes and apartments in New York is to maximize density. The same conventional wisdom asserts that the best way to expand this pool of desperately needed housing is to make developers include a percentage of affordable units in their high-priced market plan. As usual, the conventional wisdom is, for the most part, wrong.

Hiding in plain sight are almost unlimited numbers of sites where 100% affordable homes and apartments could be built. For instance, the city is loaded with hundreds of unused parcels and vacant buildings owned by religious institutions that have dwindled in size or even closed. Some enterprising private developers have begun to snap these sites up, largely for market-rate housing.

Mayor Eric Adams releases ‘Housing Our Neighbors: A Blueprint for Housing and Homelessness,’ his comprehensive blueprint to tackle New York City’s affordable housing crisis and get New Yorkers in safe, high-quality, affordable homes, in Brooklyn, on June 14, 2022. (ED REED/Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

The city needs a streamlined process of analysis, financial assistance and subsidies to unlock these sites — which exist in every community, no matter the income level or racial make-up. These sites present an unprecedented opportunity for achieving manageable increases in affordable housing in areas that are otherwise too expensive for the vast majority of regular New Yorkers.

In other words, this is possibly the last, best chance for the city to remain economically and racially integrated — a chance that decreases with every day that passes without a robust and focused strategy to repurpose these sites and facilities for the New Yorkers who need housing most.

In addition, there are scores of sites within NYCHA developments that would be ideal locations for an increase in affordable senior housing — essential because it would free up existing NYCHA apartments for larger families now stuck in the city’s shelter system and because the senior population continues to grow in the city. Metro IAF pushed for this strategy during the previous administration, without success.

The current administration seemed more open to this approach, but NYCHA’s limited development team is incapable of implementing an aggressive expansion of this approach. Three or four such developments are built each year — all eagerly filled — but a yearly total of 20 or more developments of 80-to-100 units each would be a more robust response.

We have said it before, but it bears repeating: This is by far the most affordable and most effective way to pop the cork that keeps seniors stuck in apartments they now struggle to maintain and prevents families from moving from shelters and other substandard housing into NYCHA units freed up by seniors who move into buildings with the services and support that they need.

Finally, there are sites owned by the city, state and federal government that have languished, in some cases for decades, waiting for a bold strategy of new construction.

The city alone, according to a 2018 study done by then-Comptroller Scott Stringer, has 1,000 sites of varying sizes. That was a follow-up to a 2016 study that found more than 1,100 such properties. In other words, in two years, despite a historic housing crunch, 90% of the vacant lots in the municipal government’s inventory remained undeveloped. These sat woefully unutilized, said Stringer’s audit, for at least 20 years, some “up to a half-century.”

A construction crane towers over a modular apartment building next to the Barclay's Center, Monday, May 5, 2014 in Brooklyn. The apartment building is part of the Atlantic Yards development.

(Mark Lennihan/AP)

The state controls many such sites too, but it isn’t doing the kind of urgent review necessary to release them for development or build affordable housing on its own.

One huge case in point: the largely abandoned Creedmoor Psychiatric Center site, totaling around 100 acres, in eastern Queens. Metro IAF has proposed building more than 3,000 high-quality affordable homes and apartments there. The state has promised to issue a Request for Proposals, but not, according to a state official, until “sometime in 2023.” This tentative, slow pace reflects the anxiety elected officials feel when several local civic groups, adept at NIMBY tactics, scream bloody murder about the erroneous assumption that local property values would plummet.

There’s no evidence that this would be the case and every sign that property values would remain stable or even increase, as they have done in the communities adjacent to the Spring Creek development that Metro IAF affiliate East Brooklyn Congregations and Monadnock Construction are now completing.

In addition, the city should contact the General Services Administration and see if any large federal sites, like downsized military locations, would be available for affordable home construction. The Kingsbridge Armory has sat vacant for decades. Plan after plan to revitalize it has come and gone. Does no one have the imagination and wherewithal to transform it into housing?

All of these opportunities and more depend on well-staffed housing teams at the city and state levels, as well as an expanded commitment of subsidy dollars to make these developments possible. While these costs would be significant, they pale in comparison to the current dynamic — exorbitant spending on hotels and shelters, all made necessary by the unwillingness to create the next generation of permanent, stable, affordable housing for regular New Yorkers.

This is yet another area where there is no outside person or institution — no Texas governor, no federal regulator, no private sector monopoly of available land — that can be blamed. This is another home-grown crisis that calls for a home-grown solution.

The mayor and governor need to invest the time, energy, resources and creativity necessary to unclog the affordable housing pipeline and to unleash a strong new flow of affordable homes and apartments. Until they do, regular New Yorkers of all races, but particularly African-American and Hispanic residents in places like Bed-Stuy, Bushwick, Mott Haven and a dozen neighborhoods like them, will continue to head for the suburbs or other states because they simply can’t afford the costs of housing in the city.

Carpenters work on the roof of a project in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. (Mark Lennihan/AP)

The existential crisis faced by our school system — a steady loss of students — is in our view directly linked to the lack of affordable housing options for families with school-aged children. We faced and reversed a version of this same crisis in the 1980s and 1990s when our East Brooklyn and South Bronx affiliates first built thousands of new Nehemiah homes, attracting families and filling local schools threatened with closure with new students. We recall the principal of a shrinking DOE school on Mother Gaston Blvd. in Brownsville moved to tears when EBC built 700 homes in the blocks near her school — stabilizing and then increasing the student population.

Build them, and working families of all races will come, or remain. Don’t build them, and the developers eager to build luxury housing at impossibly high rents will fill the vacuum and reconfigure the city in ways that will be impossible to reverse.

Peter Goldmark once wisely said that New York has a tendency to take its successes for granted. It took visionary leadership and unprecedented investment by then-Mayor Koch, a generation of extraordinary government housing professionals attracted to that vision and investment, along with the dedication and persistence of a wide range of non-profits organizations focused on production, to stop the bleeding and bring New York’s struggling neighborhoods and schools back to life. That often contentious and argumentative team spurred an unprecedented period of new and renovated housing work — in some years outspending and outbuilding the next 50 American cities combined. We need those same qualities from both the mayor and governor now.

Brawley is the senior pastor of St. Paul Community Baptist Church and Co-Chair of East Brooklyn Congregations. Cruz is the pastor of Monte Sion Christian Church and Co-Chair of Manhattan Together. Both organizations are affiliates of Metro Industrial Areas Foundation.

Nehemiah - Making the American Dream possible for first-time homeowners

Sun, 11 Sep 2022 16:52:54 GMT

Source " CBS Sunday Morning. 9/11/2022"

There was a time when this community was known as the murder capital of the state of New York," said The Reverend David Brawley, of St. Paul Community Baptist Church in East Brooklyn, N.Y. A lot of his parishioners now live in this neighborhood. Linger on that for a moment. Live there? People didn't even want to drive through the neighborhood. It was that unimaginably awful.

One word Rev. Brawley says was instrumental in changing that neighborhood: imagination. "You have to imagine something new," he said. "So, you had empty lots, abandoned swaths of land. And we were able to imagine something else." He's talking about an enterprise that's been 40 years in the making. In the early 1980s, community organizers dreamed up an audacious plan to build privately-owned houses to be sold at working class prices. They took land that nobody wanted, and turned it into something highly desirable. They called it the Nehemiah project. It got its name from an Old Testament developer, the prophet Nehemiah, who rebuilt the walls around the ancient city of Jerusalem.

A program organized more than 40 years ago by East Brooklyn churches helped build a community within a destitute neighborhood, and has since enabled hundreds of first-time homeowners to build equity - and hope for the future.

The goal of the project was to create equity. "It's the American dream," Brawley told "Sunday Morning" senior contributor Ted Koppel. "Everything changes when you have equity. Communities are able to build wealth. Families are able to build wealth. Life changes inter-generationally."

In East Brooklyn, as in many parts of the country, African American and Latino families faced rampant discrimination getting affordable financing, or even where they could buy property. Sarah Plowden, a repository of the history of this community, is a venerated figure at St. Paul's Church, holding the honorific title of Queen Mother. She's been involved with the Nehemiah project from the beginning, when she was a church secretary and her family lived in what used to be called the projects.

"It was like living with no hope," she said. "These kids cannot imagine how bad it was."

"Well, remind them," Koppel asked.

"I want to forget it!"

"I know you do. But I want you to remember it, just for the moment."

"Okay. To shut the lights off and the roaches appear, to live with rats and mice, I don't wish that on nobody.

Kirk Goodrich, president of Monadnock Development, with senior contributor Ted Koppel, at the site of a Nehemiah housing development.

Kirk Goodrich grew up in the area to become an affordable housing developer, one (it should be noted) who has helped transform this East Brooklyn neighborhood. "These were neighborhoods you drove through to go someplace else, not any place you wanted to be."

He told Koppel,

"This was landfill."

"Landfill sounds like such a nice neutral term. What does landfill mean?"

"A trash dump!" he laughed. "People would come here and dump dead pets. Although I didn't see it, I'm sure bodies were, you know, here."

But what was also buried under all that rubble and garbage was opportunity. Those community organizers came from local churches and worked with the Industrial Areas Foundation, the engine driving the Nehemiah project. EBC, or East Brooklyn Churches (which later changed its name to East Brooklyn Congregations), worked with local people to raise money that could be used for loans. They mobilized the community to put pressure on local politicians.

Back then, Ed Koch was the Mayor of New York City. As he later recalled in a PBS documentary, "Groundbreaking," "You came to a big open meeting; they would bring in 500 people. They would cheer you. They would boo you. Whatever it is to manipulate you."

And the pressure paid off. Koch sold 16 square blocks of New York City property at $1 a lot. And the city provided subsidies

In the 1980s New York city-owned lots in destitute neighborhoods were sold for $1 to allow construction of affordable homes.

Under a Democrat mayor, sure! But how about this fellow? In 1995 the Republican Mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, pledged, "We're gonna make sure that there's enough funding in the budget so that Spring Creek can begin, so that it can begin on time, and so that it won't be interrupted."

And all the while, East Brooklyn Churches raised millions toward a fund that helped defray costs. Even so, initially, there were very few takers. "When I got to look at the area, though, I was not excited, I'll tell you that," said Matilda Dyer, an immigrant from the Caribbean Island Dominica. She worked as a nurse. Her husband, Clinton, worked as a welder. They were not easily discouraged. "It was totally abandoned," Dyer said. "It didn't seem possible that you could have a thriving community of homes."

What tipped the scales for Dyer was that the project was being put together by East Brooklyn Churches. "I didn't know all about EBC, but I knew it was churches," she said. "I know with churches, God is at the center." Koppel said, "You are describing what is often referred to as an act of faith."

"It is. It was faith. And after I stepped forth, three or four of my friends, they purchased homes in there." Those first Nehemiah homes cost $40,000. Now this was almost 40 years ago. For many homeowners like the Dyers, the mortgage payments were actually less than the rent they had been paying. Soon, those Nehemiah homes became so popular that people had to enter lotteries just for the chance of owning a home. People like Sandra and Armando Martinez. He was a political refugee from El Salvador. Both of them were teachers, each working two jobs to raise their two children whom they helped put through college.

Sandra recalled: "2002, we went to church on a Sunday, like always. The priest told us that it will be a coupon in the newspaper to apply for affordable houses." Koppel asked, "And then what happened? Then you wait?" "Then, we waited," said Armando.

"How long before they called you?"

"Five years after," said Sandra.

"They pull the number, you move into the house?"

"No!" said Sandra. "We had the number, so that mean we, eventually one day, will have a house."

Ted Koppel with Armando and Sandra Martinez.

By the early 1990s, Sarah Plowden, who worked at St. Paul's Church, finally could afford to buy a home of her own. "I stand as a witness, a dream can become a reality. It was a struggle for me to own it, but it was worth it." The home she paid $120,000 to buy, she said, is now worth more than $500,000. Koppel asked, "So, when you pass on, and you leave that to your children, you're leaving an estate?"

"Yes, I am. But I don't intend to leave them a paid-for house. I intend to enjoy my money and my house!" she laughed.

Message received! All three of Ms. Plowden's sons own property of their own.

Sarah Plowden was finally able to own her own home. "I stand as a witness, a dream can become a reality."

Overall, the Nehemiah homes have created an estimated $1.5 billion in wealth for first-time Black and Latino homeowners.

Developer Kirk Goodrich said, "This is the most consequential, important community development effort in our country, because it was done by one organization over 40-plus years and they've never stopped." There are Nehemiah projects, at various stages of development, around the country. So far, they've built 6,500 homes.

New York's Nehemiah project has inspired construction of affordable homes in other cities, including Chicago.

The houses are, quite literally, the foundation. But the owners, said The Rev. Brawley, are the ones who breathe life into a community: "People who are city workers who now own a home, people who have come out of public housing, teachers, law enforcement officers, fire department workers who now own their own homes." And the harder the struggle to get here, the greater the sense of achievement. It took the Martinez family seven years to get their house. "This is our palace," said Sandra, "and every day we thank God. We think that every other families should have the same opportunity." Brawley said, "You can't be what you can't see. Nehemiah for us is something for everybody to see. It is possible."

Koppel noted,

"As you like to say in this building, Amen."

"Amen!"

80-unit affordable building opens in East New York

Mon, 11 Oct 2021 15:52:18 GMT

An affordable housing building for seniors opened in East New York last week, one of the final pieces of a long-awaited development project. Located at 516 Schroeders Avenue, the building is the sixth phase of the Nehemiah Spring Creek development, which includes the transformation of 45-acres of undeveloped wetlands and landfills into mixed-use, mixed-income Brooklyn community. Designed by SLCE Architects , 516 Schroeders Avenue is a 7-story building with 80 units of housing. The rental units, all of which are one-bedrooms, serve low-income seniors with incomes at or below 50 percent of New York City’s average median income.

The brick building, which faces the entrance to the massive retail complex the Gateway Center, includes a community room, on-site laundry, exercise room, and a landscaped rear yard.

“From affordable homeownership opportunities to the 80 new senior homes we are celebrating today, the Nehemiah Spring Creek project continues to provide transformative affordable housing to the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn,” HPD Commissioner Louise Carroll said in a statement.

In addition to the senior building, this latest phase (Phase 4B-2) includes 20 four-story buildings each with eight units, totaling 160 affordable rental units.

Led by the East Brooklyn Congregations (EBC), made up of multi-faith organizations, homeowners’ associations, schools, and other groups, the creation of Nehemiah Spring Creek began in the early 1980s, with work finally beginning at the site in 2008.

Developed together with the EBC’s affiliate organization the Nehemiah Housing Development Fund Company and Monadnock Construction first three phases have included over 350 single-, two-, and three-family homes.

Monadnock Development, the sister company of the aforementioned group, is partnering with EBC on phase four, which includes 56 single-family homes and 27 two-family homes. Eventually, the phase will yield 1,200 affordable rental units.

Overall, the Spring Creek community has three new parks, an educational center, a supermarket, and an EMS station.

The Nehemiah Spring Creek project joins other major developments that opened in the area over the last 40 to 50 years, including the Starrett City apartments, the Gateway Center shopping complex, Gateway Elton affordable housing, Spring Creek Gardens, and the Fountains Development.

“Today, we celebrate. For over 40 years, East Brooklyn Congregations has organized thousands of New Yorkers to fight for affordable housing with and for our seniors. Today, we see the transformation,” Rev. Dr. David Brawley, the of EBC, said. “We see what can be. Today, EBC commits to stand together with our partners to ensure that thousands of other seniors get the affordable housing they desperately need and deserve.”

East New York eyed for 21-building affordable housing complex

Tue, 15 Aug 2017 15:52:18 GMT

More new development is slowly but surely taking shape in East New York, with residences like a Dattner-designed complex with 403 fully affordable apartments and a warehouse-replacing, 77-apartment building in the works. And now, a 21-building (!) affordable housing complex, spearheaded by the city and Monadnock Development , appears to be in the works.

According to the Real Deal, the expansive project is looking to rise on the site located at 389-516 Schroeders Avenue, 1111-1123 Ashford Street, and 127-129 Gateway Drive. Many of the buildings will neighbor the modular single-family homes that were recently constructed as part of the Nehemiah Spring Creek project near The Gateway Center.

The project would bring 240 affordable homes across 20 four-story buildings and one 11-story building. So far, the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development has filed plans for only 11 of those buildings but if things go as planned, the complex will consists of three studios, 98 one-bedrooms, 132 two-bedrooms, and seven three-bedroom apartments.

Brooklyn’s affordable housing development Spring Creek faces delays from de Blasio’s office

Sat, 29 Aug 2015 15:52:18 GMT

When Mayor de Blasio held a press conference in May 2014 to debut his new affordable housing plan, his full-color presentation touted a project called Spring Creek in Brooklyn. Spring Creek was flagged as a "case study" partnership between the city and developers to "create a strong, vibrant and self-sustaining neighborhood."

But on Friday, the bulk of that project remained a big, ugly vacant field of weeds and abandoned roadway in East New York. More than 1,500 of 1,803 planned affordable units are now in a bureaucratic Twilight Zone — and may become less affordable as a result. "There is no progress from the progressive mayor," said the Rev. David Brawley, a leader of East Brooklyn Congregations, one of the groups sponsoring Spring Creek. Brawley said the delays to Spring Creek caused by the de Blasio administration are particularly ironic given that the mayor cited the project in his promise to build or preserve 200,000 affordable units over 10 years.

"We saw it in the plan," Brawley recalled Friday, standing next to the vast empty Spring Creek lot. "He incorporated our model into his plan, but now we are here in this place and he has not followed through." Since 2006, East Brooklyn Congregations has managed to build some 300 affordable units at the site through what's known as the Nehemiah housing non-profit. For the final phases of Nehemiah's Spring Creek project, de Blasio's Department of Design and Construction agreed to build infrastructure — gas, sewer and utility lines — for 225 homes and 1,295 apartments. On Friday, DDC admitted the infrastructure is now way behind schedule and won't be finished until "late 2017."

The builders, which also include the housing group, Metro Industrial Areas Foundation and contractor Monadnock Construction, expected DDC to be well underway by December of this year, when they were scheduled to close on the financing. They note that DDC gave their contractor notice to proceed with the work way back in January 2014. On Friday, DDC spokeswoman Shavone Williams said the agency is "working diligently," and so far has "conducted pre-construction surveys, inspected the sewers and tested the existing site conditions in the vicinity." She blamed delays on discovery of contaminated soil at the former dump site and a revised development layout that "includes changes to the size and placement of the sewers."

The builders note the city knew all along the site was a former dump, and say the sewer changes were minor. As a result, they now fear they'll have to charge more for the houses and apartments they're trying to build for low- and moderate-income families. The income restrictions for a family of four, for instance, range from $25,900 to $112,190. The prices are lower due to taxpayer help. A single-family home that would go for $427,688 is reduced to $235,250, while a full price $616,000 two-family is cut to $415,000. Because of delays, the builders say they'll have to begin paying off the mortgage before selling a single unit. That will drive up the cost of the homes and apartments to homeowners.

Without further government subsidies, they estimate the sales prices will rise by 20- to 25%. That would put the $235,000 single-family back up to nearly $300,000; the $415,000 two-family would jump to $518,000. "Mayor de Blasio moved quickly to get rid of Elmo and topless woman from Times Square. Unfortunately, he wasted the last 20 months taking soil samples in Spring Creek," said Grant Lindsay of Metro IAF. "We're ready to continue building hundreds more affordable homes and apartments." A spokeswoman for the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Elizabeth Rohlfing, said rents will not be affected by "additional remediation" and that delays of six to 12 months "should not materially affect" the units' affordability.

"The City is committed fully to the success of the Nehemiah Spring Creek Project at Gateway Estates. This is a large-scale reconstruction that requires considerable interagency coordination. It was always planned to be a multi-phase project with both 1-2 family homes and multi-family rentals. HPD and our partner city agencies have been working closely with the development team to move the project forward and to ensure its affordability."

Based on the Nehemiah's experience so far, it's clear the apartments are desperately needed. Nehemiah received 3,140 applications for the 81 homes currently under construction for the most recent phase of the Spring Creek project. That's nearly 40 applications for every apartment. Angela Lynch, 56, knows how these homes benefit New Yorkers struggling to find affordable living conditions. Years ago she entered a lottery for an earlier phase of the Nehemiah project in another section of East New York. Her name was called, and for the first time, she was able to stop renting and buy a house for herself and her teenage son. The home has a yard that allows her to grow a garden of tomatoes, peppers and herbs, she has her own parking space, and her 13-year-old loves the place. Her home has transformed her life. "When I put the key in the door, to know I'm going to own something - that was worth it, to have waited that long," she said. "I love my home."