The 234 Apartment

When Bill de Blasio became mayor of New York City in 2014, he made no secret of his intent to place affordable housing at the center of his term. Not long after his election, he rolled out his Housing New York plan–a 10-year strategy to build or preserve around 200,000 affordable units across the city’s five boroughs. advertisement Affordable, when it comes to housing in New York, is a slippery term. Critics of de Blasio’s plan have pointed out that the majority of the units built or converted under Housing New York remain out of reach of low-income New Yorkers–those earning less than $43,000 per year. And while the plan has succeeded making a nearly 100,000 unit dent in the city’s 550,000 affordable-unit shortfall, the terms of the new unit’s affordability are ephemeral: The majority of the units created and preserved under the mayor’s plan are only regulated temporarily, often for as little as two decades. There is no guarantee that a unit designated as affordable today will remain...

T wo weeks ago, a Manhattan Supreme Court judge handed down a decision designed to strike fear in the hearts of landlords. Justice James d’Auguste ordered that an independent receiver be appointed to manage two Midtown residential buildings where the landlords allegedly allowed illegal Airbnb rentals to occur. The case, which began when the city sued the landlords in February 2015, has become one of the battlegrounds in a larger war between city enforcement agencies and short- term rental sites like Airbnb. Airbnb, which was recently valued at $31 billion, refuses to release the exact addresses of hosts who break the law by renting their entire apartment for less than 30 days without being present. Without the addresses and names of Airbnb violators , the city mostly targets the owners of buildings that rack up the most illegal hotel complaints from 311 calls and the New York City Department of Buildings. “This entire model—and it was intentional [by the city]—is complaint-drive...

As rents climb across the U.S., more people are being driven into homelessness. In some of the country’s hottest housing markets , rent increases have a strong connection with upticks in the homeless population , according to a study released this week from real- estate website Zillow . In New York City, a 5% rent hike would lead to nearly 3,000 more people becoming homeless. In Los Angeles, the same increase in rent would leave around 2,000 people without a place to live. To produce the report, Zillow created a model that analyzed different variables, including how population growth and changes in rent affect the homelessness rate. The model also considered the accuracy of homeless counts. Zillow then passed Census population figures , homelessness counts and its own rental data through the model to determine the relationship between rental prices and homelessness in different cities. The Census population numbers also take into account people who move in or out of a city, inclu...

KSP Investigates Fatal Collision In Bracken County KSP Investigates Fatal Collision In Bracken County Updated: Saturday, August 26 2017 12:15 PM EDT 2017-08-26 16:15:36 GMT MGN Graphics FOSTER, Ky. (LEX 18) — Kentucky State Police are investigating a fatal collision between a van and a passenger car near the intersection of Eden Ridge Road and Johnsville Road in Bracken County . The collision occurred around 4 p.m. on Eden Ridge Road . Preliminary investigation revealed that a Chevy Lumina operated by a juvenile collided head on with a  Plymouth Voyager operated by Howard R. Reilly, 46, of Augusta. After the collision occurred, the Chevy Lumin... FOSTER, Ky. (LEX 18) — Kentucky State Police are investigating a fatal collision between a van and a passenger car near the intersection of Eden Ridge Road and Johnsville Road in Bracken County . The collision occurred around 4 p.m. on Eden Ridge Road . Preliminary investigation revealed that a Chevy Lumina operated by a juven...

Another program, run by the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board , works with the city on co-op conversions of buildings taken over from delinquent landlords. Tenants help with renovations and can eventually buy the units for low prices. About 30,000 apartments are in the program, which is administered by the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Since 2003 the city’s Housing Development Corporation has also been partnering with both for-profit and nonprofit developers to create new affordable apartments — 1,767 units in 21 buildings. The benefits of promoting homeownership in this way extend far beyond the individual owners, said Andrew Reicher, the executive director of the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board . “In the Lower East Side , in Harlem, in Bed-Stuy,” he said, “these owners stuck it out and struggled to improve their block, and improvements spread from their work. And they are not displaced when the neighborhood turns around.” Of course, the question fo...

Protesters are undeterred, Mr. Quinn said, even though Mr. Trump was known to stay sealed in his tower when he was a private citizen, commuting between his penthouse and his offices on a lower floor and sometimes not leaving the building for days at a time. It seems unlikely that he will spend much time outdoors, given the immense security efforts necessary to protect a sitting president in the middle of Midtown Manhattan. “He might not be able to see us,” said Mr. Quinn, who works in the publishing industry and lives in Jackson Heights, Queens. “But he’ll see us on social media.” Speaking to reporters on Friday at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., where he is spending a 17- day working vacation , Mr. Trump said he had intentionally kept his trips home to a minimum after seeing firsthand how disruptive presidential visits can be to New York. "I think I’m more disruptive than any of them,” he said. The Police Department has estimated that the cost of protecting Mr. Trump when he...

WITH the median price of an apartment in Manhattan topping $1,000 a square foot, homeownership is often far out of reach. But there are options for those who cannot afford the market rate, including co-op apartments for buyers who earn a certain percentage of the area median income , or A.M.I. These buildings are scattered all over the city. Some date to the 1950s; others are brand-new and still looking for buyers. Some are limited to those who earn less than the median income -- 60 or 80 percent, for example (the median for a family of four in New York City is $83,000). Others have apartments for those earning a bit more than that sum. Many new developments try to bring in owners from different economic backgrounds, and are likely to include market-rate units as well. At one recent development, Atlantic Terrace, near the new Nets arena in Brooklyn, similar one-bedroom apartments were priced at $85,000, $113,000 and $232,000, depending on the buyer's income. A market-rate one-be...

Long Island City waterfront ." /> The project will bring 1,000 apartments, commercial space and a new school to the Long Island City waterfront . View Full Caption NYCEDC HUNTERS POINT — Critics of the city's plan to build a school, offices and 1,000 apartments on the Long Island City waterfront called it "irresponsible" to develop the site because it's located in a hurricane evacuation zone that's prone to flooding during storms. Advocates said they would rather see the two city-owned parcels — located next to the East River at the end of 44th Drive — converted to public parkland, with plantings, oyster beds and other green infrastructure to help make the area more resistant to floods.  "We think continuing to build in a flood plain is irresponsible," said Diane Hendry, a member of the LIC Coalition, an advocacy group that launched a petition last week opposing the city's plans. "The land is a natural wetlands. It should be preserv...