NY Secures $390M for Affordable Housing

The New York State Capitol building. Image by jensjunge via Pixabay

New York State Gov. Kathy Hochul has announced that the state has been awarded more than $390 million in bonds and subsidies for the construction and preservation of over 1,600 affordable apartment homes located in numerous regions throughout the state. The funds have been secured as part of the state’s fiscal year 2023 budget, which includes a five-year, $25 billion plan for the building and conservation of 100,000 affordable units, alongside 10,000 homes dedicated to caring for the at-risk population. Additionally, the budget calls for building 50,000 more market-rate apartments.

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The grants were provided amid one of the worst affordability crises in the history of The Empire State. According to data from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, there is a 615,025-unit statewide deficit of affordable housing for renters. Twenty-eight percent of renters that qualify fall under the category of having an extremely low income.

The allotments, in depth

Projects within 30 miles of the state Capitol include:

• Tait Lane Reserve, a 12-building, 202-unit affordable community located in Saratoga Springs that will offer a mix of townhome and three-story walk-up arrangements. The project, having undergone an extensive rezoning as part of its development, will also include 10 homes for individuals struggling with homelessness. As part of the new fund, the community received $61.6 million, in addition to $148,000 from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority on top of grants provided by the Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative.
• Taylor I Apartments, two vacant buildings in the city of Troy that will be replaced with a seven-story, 141-unit community that includes 2,000 square feet of flexible commercial space. The project received $51.5 million in funding and will be covered in full by Section 8 housing vouchers. The development is part of an ongoing restoration of the city’s riverfront district.
• Marketplace Senior Apartments, a 150-unit project in the town of Henrietta that will reserve 45 homes for assisted living. In addition to the $43 million development subsidy that it received from the new fund, the community’s energy-efficient design was granted $825,000 from NYSERDA.

Several communities in New York City received a significant portion of the funding, such as:

• The second phase of the Bronx-area Bedford Green House, a new 17-story, 116-unit community with an attached medical office. The project received $44.7 million in funding and will reserve 70 units for the homeless, in addition to 46 units for families and seniors aged 62 and older. Formerly homeless renters will receive subsidies from the Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative.
• The $27.5 million construction of Crotona Belmont Senior Housing, a ten-story, 134-unit affordable senior housing community in the Bronx’s East Tremont neighborhood that will allot 41 apartments exclusively for the formerly homeless. Renters will receive Section 8 project-based vouchers provided by the New York City Housing Authority.
• The $44.2 million construction of Shepherd Glenmore, a seven-story, 123-unit community in Brooklyn’s East New York district with 74 apartments reserved for the area’s at-risk population. The community’s services will be supplied through the Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative, backed by the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance. Eight additional units will be dedicated to seniors. Furthermore, the project will produce a portion of its electricity on-site, following the installation of rooftop solar panels.
• In Manhattan’s Hamilton Heights, River View Towers, a 25-story, 385-unit state-supervised portion of the Mitchell-Lama cooperative received $20.4 million for a series of capital improvements to the structure’s roofs, piping, boiler systems, windows, balconies and masonry. The improvements will drastically decrease the community’s fuel usage, cutting expenditures by 14 percent.

Elsewhere in the state, several other affordable communities secured much-needed funding to both extend their lifespans and complete their buildouts.

• In the city of Kingston, Stuyvesant Apartments, a 120-unit property operated by the Kingston Housing Authority received $39.6 million for a series of full-building renovations. The property was built in 1972 as part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Section 236 development program.
• In Buffalo, Pan American Square, a development that calls for the construction 150 units built over three buildings was granted $40.1 million. The project had also received $1.9 million from NYSERDA’s clean energy initiative. More than half of the community’s homes will be reserved for the mentally ill, with support provided by the New York State Office of Mental Health’s Community Residence Single Room Occupancy Program. Twenty more homes will be reserved for the homeless, funded through the Empire State Supporting Housing Initiative.
• In the nearby Erie and Niagara counties, $17.7 million was awarded for the affordability preservation and slight renovation of the Magnolia Housing Scattered Site construction project, which includes four communities totaling 96 apartments. Upgrades include new LED lighting fixtures, water heaters and HVAC systems. Two sites, Austin Manor and Gratwick Manor, are located in Buffalo. The other two communities, Haskell Stovroff and Elizabeth Harvey are in the towns of Cheektowaga and North Tonawanda, respectively.