New York City is rolling out a new program designed to create more affordable apartments by mixing them in with luxury units in neighborhoods where low-income housing development lags.
The new “Mixed Income Marketing Initiative” from the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development will offer developers tax breaks and other local subsidies in exchange for setting aside the majority of a project’s units for affordable housing.
The program will require developers to restrict rents based on tenant income in 70% of their units while allowing the same developers to charge whatever they want, without rent regulations, in the remaining 30%.
At least 15% of the new apartments must be reserved for people leaving city homeless shelters, according to HPD. The affordable units also must comply with rent stabilization rules restricting annual increases, and the subsidies will not apply to the market-rate apartments.
Kim Darga, HPD’s deputy commissioner of development, said the program will help speed up affordable housing production without relying on limited federal incentives for 100%-affordable projects or state tax breaks, such as the expired 421a program, that required about a quarter of units to be priced for low- and middle-income tenants.
“We are looking to provide a third path,” Darga said. “It really is going to take every possible idea and a lot of creativity in order to address the challenges that we see in New York with housing affordability.”
The new initiative comes as the city faces a growing affordability crisis: Evictions are on the rise, fewer than 1% of units priced below $1,500 a month citywide are vacant and available to rent, and average monthly rents are approaching $3,000 in Queens, according to RentCafe, a listing site.
HPD opened its application process for developers on Tuesday and included a map highlighting priority areas where affordable housing is especially limited, including in wealthier neighborhoods such as the Upper East…
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