Brooklyn's Progress
June/July 2005

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Forest City Ratner Companies President & CEO Bruce C. Ratner and Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) Executive Director Bertha Lewis announced that approximately half of the 4,500 new rental units in the proposed Atlantic Yards development will be set aside for low- and moderate-income households using financing tools created by the Bloomberg Administration’s New Housing Marketplace plan.

As part of the City’s $3 billion housing plan to build and rehabilitate 68,000 affordable housing units, programs were designed to spur the creation of mixed-income housing.  The current proposal for Atlantic Yards follows the model employed by the Mayor’s Housing Plan, and establishes a new standard for income diversity that is a result of an innovative collaboration among the City, Forest City Ratner and ACORN.  Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, Housing Preservation & Development (HPD) Commissioner Shaun Donovan, and Housing Development Corporation (HDC) President Emily Youssouf attended the announcement at Brooklyn Borough Hall on May 19.

“While we can’t wait to watch our new home town team play in a spectacular new arena designed by Frank Gehry, it’s the jobs and housing that will have the greatest impact on the borough and people of Brooklyn,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “When Forest City Ratner and ACORN approached us with this unique proposal, we worked together to tailor a plan around HDC’s Mixed-Income Program in order to create more affordable housing opportunities for New Yorkers at all income levels – and that’s something we can all cheer about.”

As part of the plan, the Administration worked with Forest City Ratner and ACORN to increase the amount of financing provided in order to construct larger buildings with more units and to make the apartments as affordable as possible to families with a range of incomes.  Under the Mixed-Income Program, at least 20 percent of the units in the new development must be reserved for low-income households (with gross annual household income for a family of four under $31,400).  At least 15 percent of these low-income units must be set aside for very low-income families (with income for a family of four under $25,120).  Approximately 30 percent of the other units would be set aside for “middle-income”  families (with income ranging from $37,680 to $100,480, based on a household size of four, paying 30 percent of their income in rent). 

As with all city-sponsored housing, there will be a lottery for the affordable units.  In the lottery, 50 percent of the units will be set aside for community residents.  In this case, the developer is also considering setting aside 10 percent percent of the affordable rental units for income-eligible senior citizens.  HDC’s Mixed-Income Program combines the use of tax-exempt private activity bonds with a second mortgage offered at a one percent interest rate to finance multi-family rental housing.  Assuming the necessary State approvals are obtained in a timely manner, construction on the new housing could begin in summer of 2006.   

“From the beginning, we believed that housing would be an integral part of the Atlantic Yards project,” said Forest City Ratner President Bruce Ratner. ”But we did not imagine at the time that we would, in fact, be able to establish what is truly a new and innovative way to develop housing. 

Thanks to Mayor Bloomberg, ACORN and so many others committed to enhancing housing in Brooklyn, we’ve created a program that ensures that people in all economic brackets have access to these apartments, retaining the character of the borough and the city, and I believe creating a better environment for all who reside there.”

The Atlantic Yards project is expected to create over 12,000 construction jobs and approximately 8,500 permanent jobs.  According to an economic analysis completed earlier this year for the City’s Economic Development Corporation, the net fiscal benefit to the City and State from the Atlantic Yards project is estimated at $1 billion in present value over the next thirty years. 

More than 26,000 of the 68,000 homes and apartments to be created or preserved as part of the Administration’s New Housing Marketplace plan are already in the development pipeline.  That is about 40 percent of the total during the first two years of the five-year plan, putting the Administration on track to meet its goal.  HDC’s Mixed-Income Program began two years ago and is responsible for financing over 700 new units of affordable housing.