AHR will go on hiatus as of today. You may have noticed the news on January 18 that D+B is part of the team selected to develop Prospect Plaza in Brooklyn. We’re very excited about the opportunity, but it means that, at least for the short term, we’ll need to pause on publishing the newsletter. We’ll try to restart as the development project moves forward.
Thanks for reading!
Posted in Affordable Housing
The city has come up with a plan to clear the massive backlog of repair orders in public housing buildings. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York City Housing Authority Chairman John Rhea announced a new system today aimed at clearing a backlog of 420,000 repair requests by the end of the year. In some NYCHA buildings, residents have waited years for repairs, but agency officials hope to only have about 50,000 remaining repair orders by January 2014. The new system would speed up repairs by making sure the correct type of repair person gets assigned to jobs in the right order. City officials said they are paying for the program with $40 million in administrative savings.
- NY1
Posted in Affordable Housing
Tagged John Rhea, Michael Bloomberg, New York City Housing Authority, NYCHA
As Connecticut continues to fall short on adequate affordable housing and rental costs outpace income, state officials hope a new Department of Housing will help reverse that trend.
Operational plans for the new department were laid out this week during testimony before the General Assembly’s Appropriations Committee. The Interagency Council on Affordable Housing said most of the state’s housing services and funding programs should be folded into the department, creating one stop for developers and residents seeking services. That would mean transferring staff and funding from state Department of Economic and Community Development to the new department. Some advocates indicated that the recommendations don’t include the state’s major funding source for housing — the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (CHFA). “I see this as a good first step, but it misses a chance to be a great first step. You can’t do that and leave CHFA out of the mix. There needs to be strong effort to incorporate them into the mix,” James Dunn a nonprofit housing developer said.
Posted in Affordable Housing
MassHousing announced a loan closing today of $8.9 million to preserve affordability for low-income senior citizens at the 100-unit Logan Park apartment community in Braintree. As a condition of the loan, Logan Park Associates Limited Partnership, an affiliate of SHP Acquisitions, which owns Logan Park, will seek to extend the federal Section 8 Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) contract and the affordability on all 100 apartments for the longest term possible—typically 20 years—when the current HAP contract expires in February 2014. Logan Park was built in 1984 at 193 Grove St., in Braintree and was originally financed by MassHousing. The original MassHousing loan will mature in April 2014. Logan Park was refinanced through MassHousing’s Section 8 Proactive Preservation Program, which seeks to extend affordability at developments where Section 8 HAP contracts are due to expire.
Posted in Affordable Housing
Tagged Braintree, Massachusetts, MassHousing, senior housing
Only five months after the city passed the long-overdue update to its 1962 zoning code, City Council members are once again tinkering with the ground rules. Two months after moving to revise parking requirements, they’re now focused on outreach. While the City is trying to spur development, City Council last week made a major change to the 5-month-old zoning code that critics say could significantly slow building projects throughout the city. The purpose of the bill, Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell said, is to ensure “inclusion across the board.” Critics argue that it will stall development when the new code was supposed to help streamline it.
AHR will go on hiatus as of this Friday. You may have noticed the news on January 18 that D+B is part of the team selected to develop Prospect Plaza in Brooklyn. We’re very excited about the opportunity, but it means that, at least for the short term, we’ll need to pause on publishing the newsletter. We’ll try to restart as the development project moves forward.
Thanks for reading!
Posted in Affordable Housing
Gov. Chris Christie’s latest rejection of legislation to make vacant foreclosed homes available as affordable housing has left a broad coalition of proponents scratching their heads about what to try next to deal with New Jersey’s foreclosure crisis. In twin vetoes, the governor suggested he would try to divert some federal foreclosure relief funding into Hurricane Sandy aid and would continue to fight to use municipal affordable- housing money to patch holes in the state budget. In his veto message, the governor told lawmakers the state should rely on $300 million in federal funds to assist New Jersey families in trouble with their mortgages, “as opposed to the unavailable and, in some cases unidentified, state funding sources that this bill relies upon,” he said.
Posted in Affordable Housing
Tagged Chris Christie, Hurricane Sandy, New Jersey, Superstorm Sandy
A company headed by one of the world’s richest entrepreneurs will help guide the redevelopment of one of Seattle’s poorest neighborhoods. The board of directors of the Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) has selected Vulcan Real Estate, an arm of Paul Allen’s company Vulcan, as the top choice for the Master Development Partner in the rebuilding of Yesler Terrace, Seattle’s oldest public housing development. The job entails the planning and financial support to replace the 70-year-old housing development in the Central District with mixed-use apartment buildings and several high-rises. At a Jan. 22 meeting, SHA board members said that Vulcan has the experience and “financial wherewithal” to manage the sale of some 30 acres of land. It would generate the needed revenue to build 561 replacement units for families living at 30 percent or below the area median income. SHA also hopes to add 100 units to the development for that population.
Posted in Affordable Housing
Tagged Paul Allen, Seattle Housing Authority, SHA, Vulcan Real Estate, Yesler Terrace
The Lake County Housing Authority has selected the Atlanta-based Benoit Group to redevelop property now occupied by the Marion Jones projects. The Benoit Group will oversee construction, as well as co-own, under a joint venture, what could be a $100 million mixed-income housing development at Dugdale Road and 14th Street. The ultimate cost of the new housing will depend on whether LCHA can reach agreements with the city of North Chicago and Foss Park District to obtain adjacent parcels of land. If only the 51-year-old public housing project, which includes 125 attached dwellings, is replaced, the cost will be $60 million. The Benoit Group was selected out of an original field of 11 contenders, according to David Northern, Sr., LCHA executive director. The Benoit Group was named Jan. 25 over two other finalists — Chicago-based Habitat Company and Community Builders, headquartered in Boston — with the assistance of the community advisory Marion Jones Evaluation Committee.
The board of the Atlanta Housing Authority, which was to have met Wednesday to vote on a separation agreement with CEO Renee Glover, has cancelled that meeting due to the lack of a quorum. An earlier story on SaportaReport said that the board was going to be acting on that separation agreement at the meeting. This is not the first time that the AHA board has had to cancel its meetings due to the lack of a quorum. The seven-member board currently has one full vacancy, and it has three other members serving on expired terms. The meeting cancellation also prolongs the agony of the leadership limbo at AHA. For more than a year-and-a-half, there’s been uncertainty about Glover’s future with the organization. Apparently AHA board members and Glover have reached an agreement paving the way for her leave the organization, but the board has been unable to act on that agreement. Meanwhile, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, who appoints members of the AHA board, has said he would not mind if she were to serve out the rest of her contract.
Posted in Affordable Housing
Tagged AHA, atlanta, Atlanta Housing Authority, Georgia, Kasim Reed, Renee Glover
