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...

NEW PORT RICHEY – A shortage of affordable housing is an issue that affects communities throughout the state and Pasco County is no stranger to the subject. Guests to next week’s Housing and Community Development Summit in New Port Richey will learn how Pasco is affected and new ideas in development to make sure low-income residents can find proper shelter . The summit will take place from 8 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 21, at the CARES Elfers Center , 4136 Barker Drive. It is presented by the Pasco County Community Development Department . Jaimie Ross, president and CEO of the Tallahassee- based Florida Housing Coalition , will lead the discussion. “It’s really a time for different parts of the community to come together and talk about the issues they’re having and come up with some ideas for addressing them,” Ross said of the Aug. 21 gathering. Other localities throughout the state request similar summits with Florida Housing Coalition involvement and the nonprofit organizat...

Evelyn Gaston was 9 years old in 1971, when she lived with her mother and grandmother at 18 Wright St. in Rock Hill. Over the years, she raised her daughter in that home. And her daughter had her first child there. Life got away from Gaston soon after. She was unable to pay for the home, which led to it being demolished around 15 years ago. Then, she says, “ God put special people ” in her path. After learning recently that a new home was being built in that same spot, she went to her friends in city government. “After that, I didn’t have to do much,” said Gaston. “ People jumped right on in to help me, everybody stepped in to make sure I would get back on that property.” Gaston was among four people who spoke Thursday about how the Housing Development Corporation of Rock Hill (HDCRH) changed their lives for the better. The affordable housing organization held its annual luncheon and meeting at Manchester Meadows, with guests including Rock Hill Mayor Doug Echols and members of t...

CNE is a nonprofit housing organization that aims to create economically diverse neighborhoods filled with financially empowered citizens and housing for all. (Photo: Staff) New apartments, including some with income-restricted rents, are now open for leasing near Highland Park. Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise has been working on the project, which includes 49 residential units , for about three years.  “We were able to buy 32 vacant parcels from Tennessee Temple before they closed down campus,” CNE President and CEO Martina Guilfoil said.  Of the 49 units, 41 are one-bedroom, six are two-bedroom and two are three-bedroom. Eleven of the units are income-restricted for lower-income households. Rent for the 39 “market rate” apartments, which CNE aims to make affordable for young professionals, ranges from $800 to $1,500 a month. The income- restricted rents range from $462 to $884, and a lottery will be used for initial leasing of these units.  Rent from the market rate unit...

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...