$50M Grant Will Fund Affordable Housing in Lower Manhattan

NEW YORK CITY-HUD Secretary Mel Martinez ceremoniously handed Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. George Pataki 300 keys as a symbol of affordable housing units that will be created through at $50 million grant. The Lower Manhattan Development Corp. has allocated the HUD funding, including surplus from the LMDC Residential Grant Program, for an affordable housing initiative that will fund approximately 300 affordable units for moderate to middle-income working families in the income range of approximately $50,000 to $85,000. Bloomberg called moderate and middle-income families the “social glue of our communities.”

The program will provide a $50 million grant for subsidies for affordable housing tied to the Liberty Bond program, jointly administered by the New York State Housing Finance Agency (HFA) and the New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC). The program will require that 20% of the units developed, for the next four projects or until the $50 million is fully allocated, be provided for affordable housing.To date more than 1,300 units have been approved for Liberty Bonds and more than 6,000 units are in the pipeline.

At a press conference announcing the initiative, Pataki said, “This program will make it easier for hundreds of hard-working New Yorkers who want to settle downtown find an affordable place to live, build a bright, stable future for their families, while simultaneously rebuilding and revitalizing Lower Manhattan.”