$7.8M Investment to Help Big Six Towers Remain Affordable

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorNew York–The AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust (HIT) has committed to invest $7.8 million in the Big Six Towers, a cooperative housing complex in Queens, New York with long ties to the labor movement. The investment will allow the complex to remain affordable for middle-class working families and retirees.Approximately one-third of the residents of The Big Six Towers, developed in 1961, are active or retired union members. Big Six Towers participates in New York’s Mitchell-Lama program, which provides affordable rental and co-op housing for middle-income families.”We are pleased to make an investment that will keep Big Six Towers affordable to working families and retirees,” says Carol Nixon, director of HIT’s New York City office. “It is crucial that our cities continue to have adequate housing for working people. The HIT has made that one of our highest priorities.”Located in Woodside, Queens, and named after Local 6, the Big Six Towers complex consists of 983 units in seven residential towers. It also has a shopping center and its own electric power plant. The Big Six Towers is one of several union-sponsored housing developments in New York City where HIT financing has helped to preserve affordability for middle-income residents. In the past six years, the HIT has provided $84.3 million in financing for five union-developed rental and co-op projects. These projects were originally built 40 to 50 years ago as part of a union-led movement to develop housing affordable to working people in New York City.