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February 24, 2008
Atlantic Yards Affordable Housing in Jeopardy Due to Housing Bond Cap "Crisis"
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
The proposed "affordable" housing for Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project is in jeopardy.According to information from the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) Forest City Ratner’s (FCR) housing would require subsidization worth $1.4 billion in federally tax-free housing bonds from the New York City Housing Development Corporation (NYCHDC). With the aid of these bonds, FCR proposes that 2,250 rental units out of a total 6,430 units would be deemed "affordable."
The problem is that there is no money now for Forest City Ratner.
New York State has a housing bond cap of about $1.6 billion per year for the entire state, New York City has only a portion of that cap, and there is a long pipeline of applications for this limited amount of financing in front of FCR. It is believed that FCR has not even applied for their housing bonds. According to Norman Oder in a story today on his Atlantic Yards Report, NYCHDC did not respond to a request for confirmation of this.
Posted by amy at February 24, 2008 1:25 PM