The Lo-Down points out that the city is now advertising the 16 affordable housing units available at 331 E. Houston St. at Ridge Street.
The building was constructed through the city’s inclusionary housing program — 20 percent of the apartments were set aside for applicants with household incomes ranging from about $30,000 to $50,000, as The Lo-Down reports.
The affordable studios are priced at $847 per month, 1-bedrooms at $909 and 2-bedrooms at $1,101. Half of the affordable units are earmarked for residents of Community District 3, which includes the East Village.
Applications must be postmarked or submitted online no later than June 29. For income guidelines and additional information, please go here.
As for the building, here's a description via the website of project architect Stephen B. Jacobs:
The ground floor includes the residential lobby, a lounge, and apartments in the rear of the building which have access to outdoor space. A large skylight brings natural light to the gym in the cellar, and stairs provide access to recreational outdoor space in the rear yard. A mix of studios, one, and two-bedroom apartments make up the bulk of the building. The top floor includes a three-bedroom apartment with a balcony. The rooftop is designed as an amenity space for the building, complete with deck seating, projector screen, bar, and outdoor shower.
The interior design was inspired by the raw nature of materials in the Lower East Side, such as exposed concrete and blackened steel, and includes touches of color such as the graffiti tiled accent wall in the lobby.
Previously on EV Grieve:
A look at 331 E. Houston St., with a rooftop deck for outdoor showers and 'Live Free or Die Hard'
22 comments:
this is a one of the rare occasions that i can say, "i make too much money"
Does anyone know what sort of rights that tenants in these new "affordable" apartments have - if you meet the income requirements - will you lose the apartment if you start to make a bit more money? Once you are in do you have the same rights as a rent stabilized tenet? I have heard that this places go market rate after 20 years is this true? if anyone has answers....
Thanks!
Got to love rent control policy... Construction company gets millions in tax breaks and fucking 16 people get apartments!
Its like a housing lottery... A few lucky people get the winning ticket but every else loses
I never meet these requirements. I always make about 10 or 15K too much. Of course, who cares when all that extra cash makes me a perfect candidate for market rate in today's NYC!
I'm totally screwed.
Hey, maybe I'll quit my job and apply!!
I believe that opponents to the proposed EV rezoning voiced that "rezoning would impact neighboring communities in Chinatown, the Bowery, the Lower East Side and NYCHA public housing, all of which are experiencing tremendous development pressures in spite of the troubled housing market."
http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/ccpd/community-planning-zoning/east-village-lower-east-side-rezoning-proposal
EV rezoning was the result of Dept of City Planning and CB3. Interesting to read the old clippings for comments and quotes versus what has happened since.
http://thevillager.com/villager_181/heightcapsound%20great.html
16 WHOLE APARTMENTS?!?! WOW! They care!
Here's a thought - how about all you whiners get together, pool your money, develop a property and then make all the units in the building affordable. Problem solved. Love to hear why you 'can't' do it.
"The interior design was inspired by the raw nature of materials in the Lower East Side, such as exposed concrete and blackened steel, and includes touches of color such as the graffiti tiled accent wall in the lobby."
Had that not been meant to insult the public's intelligence?
How'bout a lobby floor made of lucite-encased sidewalk squares from 3rd & C circa '85, with embedded syringes, empty dope bags, crack vials, rats, trash, and a yellowed, crumpled page from "East Village Eye" magazine? How "authentical" that would be!
You know who would get these 16 apartments? Same people who would be renting the other apartments, i.e. the trustfunders.
You see, these trusutafarians, on paper make little or no money working as a wait staff at that Kickstarter funded "restaurant, or, as assistant editors at some publishing co., or some assistant curator at some museum, or some start-up as content strategist, making $30K - $50K a year, all jobs obtained because mom and dad pulled some strings because they are the VPs or have friends or are major donors on said institutions . But their existence here is subsidized or funded by their trust funds or their parents, thus the salary they report to the IRS would make them qualify for these affordable housing. And they have a good credit since all those credit card bills have been paid for mom and dad. Also, these trustafarians do not have a criminal record, even though they've been in trouble with the law, but since mommy and daddy hired a lawyer to arrange a sweet deal for some sort of community service or whatnot so that Meaghan or Connor's record will be sealed or expunged thus they will not have a criminal record.
But if you have a bad credit because you have defaulted on your student loans but is now finally making regular payments and have no other debt obligations; and , moreover, god forbid, you have a minor criminal record such as a disorderly conduct because you had to plea guilty to that, even though you did nothing wrong but because you could not afford an attorney you had to plead guilty to the crime you didn’t commit just to put an end to the ordeal at the hands of the corrupt officials of the justice and penal systems, they won't even consider your application. Welcome to Taylor Swift's New York! It's been trust funded for you!
I was in a housing lottery this past year. Two different times they turned me away for bogus reasons. First saying I had bad credit.. untrue, and they tried to say they saw a different credit report than the one I had. Impossible, they have to show you the same credit report they saw. The second time they said I didn't make enough money - they told me that my IRS report told them this information. However a month after I got a letter in the mail from the IRS containing the information they requested. The letter said they don't send this info to a third party,the IRS sends it to you and YOU pass it on to the third party.So they dropped me for information they claimed they had but had never seen. Housing lotteries are fixed. This is how deBlasio thinks a tale of two cities will be fixed? Tens of thousands trying to win a fixed lottery? Give me protection for the place I live in now!
16 apartments ,wow. You know x of those will be who Doctor Communis descrbed.
Meaghan and Connor LOL those names.
I think the fairest way to distribute these apartments is to have one person from each occupation get one:
NYC public school teacher, nurse, home health aide, paramedic, police officer, firefighter, union construction worker, non-musician artist with a verifiable body of work (minimum amount of public showing and income from sales), medical researcher, garbageperson, utility worker, writer with at least one book published by whoever, musician with a body of work (releases, touring, press etc.), social worker, doctor for the poor and middle class, lawyer for the poor and middle class.
Feel free to replace whatever occupation you want.
These sixteen tenants are the backbone of NYC. I wouldn't resent any of these people living in this place. Hey, one tenant goes into burning buildings to save people (firefighter) while another teaches children to read and write (teacher) and yet another is trying to find a cure for cancer (medical researcher) etc. Every one of these tenants serve a purpose.
Look at the picture of the lobby, and imagine what "sort" of person lives in that building. Gotta wonder about how the lower-income tenants might be received and perceived by the upper-income tentants for whom the building had primarily been built. Aside from the latter's resentment toward the former for being granted such a generous discount, it might also result in the majority's looking-down on the minority. I could imagine the "po' folks" being snubbed, complained-about, and otherwise harassed until finally driven out.
Even if that wouldn't occur, clashes of attitudes, personalities and lifestyles are bound to occur between people of disparate classes. It might also turn out that the wealthier tenants tend to be white and the low-rent tenants non-white; that should test the social "tolerance" of either faction.
This 16-apartment allotment seems like a lame attempt at guilt-assuagement, consience-clearing: letting some token "poor" people live there, and paying superficial (if not sarcastic?) homage to a cultural landscape that such developments have replaced.
The only person I know who "won" one of those housing lotteries is exactly as described above. She lives in the very expensive apartments above Best Buy at the corner of 4th Ave and 14th. Market rate there is above $4500 for a studio. $7500 for a one bedroom. Never did understand how she managed to qualify since she had graduated from Middlebury College a year before moving there and comes from an extremely wealthy family. Of course the only reason she would ever move is when she decides to get married and move to Westchester or CT with her new husband.
I guess on paper she makes the minimum, but that never seems to stop her taking trips overseas. Oh well - more proof the system is fixed against those of us saps who have to work jobs for a living
So let me get this straight:
A) Developer builds all condo or market rate apartments without inclusionary housing and they are money grubbing greedy scum who couldn't throw a bone to the common folk. Or...
B) Developer builds building with inclusionary housing and they are money grubbing greedy scum who threw a bone to the common folk but are unforgivable because they actually try to make money in real estate.
There truly is no making you people happy, is there?
I'd really like to hear an idea for a solution that will make you guys happy and is actually reasonable for a developer.
The problem is - there should also be apartments with rent suitable for those earning between 45K - 90K - single or couple. All of these people are screwed from both sides - there should be a scale - not low low income, low income and super rich!
Does anyone know about this new building on east 3rd street between ave c and d? It's almost done but not much info on it
How about giving first dibs to the people who lost their homes in the 2nd Ave blast?
Yet again, the real NYC middle class suffers.
I make too little money. I am disabled and am on SSI . I do not qualify. Not too wonderful.
I believe I read that there are now 60,000 people in the homeless shelter system. Not sure if any of them would qualify for this "affordable" housing. Sorry for repeating myself, but am I the only one upset that 125 acres of land on Governor's Island cannot be used for permanent housing? It is ironic as it was the first homes of Europeans who arrived to this area.
BINGO!!!
Yes! I was waiting for one of the many pigs or unreal estate to stand up and do somthing good. Then I woke up...
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