Affordable Housing Development
Development of new housing for people at diverse income levels, including units affordable to low-, moderate-, and middle-income households, is an important element of the Greenpoint-Williamsburg Land Use and Waterfront Plan. As described in Mayor Bloomberg's New Housing Marketplace plan, the Administration is committed to build and preserve 65,000 housing units in the City over the next five years. Under this plan, the City's Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and Housing Development Corporation (HDC) have tailored programs to meet the challenges of affordable housing development today, including development of affordable units on privately owned sites and formerly industrial land. In addition, the City is committed to investments in affordable housing within areas undergoing rezoning to facilitate new housing development, such as Greenpoint-Williamsburg.

In conjunction with the proposed rezoning in Greenpoint-Williamsburg, HPD has analyzed applicable programs on both upland and waterfront sites, determining that development using these programs is financially feasible and offers developers advantages over market-rate development:

• On upland sites, a range of programs including the New Housing Opportunities Program (NewHOP) and the Low-Income Affordable Marketplace Program (LAMP) can be applied. In NewHOP developments, all units would be affordable to households earning between 100 and 165 percent of Area Median Income (AMI). In LAMP developments, all units would be affordable to households earning up to 60 percent of AMI. Other applicable programs include the NewHOP Mod Program and the Mixed-Income Rental Program.

• The program best suited to waterfront sites is "80-20" bond financing, which requires 20 percent of units to be affordable to households earning up to 50 percent of AMI. An 80-20 development on a prototypical waterfront site of 2.5 acres (roughly one block) would produce approximately 94 units for low-income households.

• These available programs may be combined to achieve multiple levels of affordability within projects.

• Both upland and waterfront sites are eligible for the New Venture Incentive Program (NewVIP), which provides low-interest loans for acquisition, site development and environmental work necessary to accelerate development for new construction.

For more information on the New Housing Marketplace plan and programs, visit HPD's website and HDC’s website.