February 3, 2020

By Michael Herzenberg (Watch the video segment on NY1)

The city announced Monday it financed record numbers of affordable housing units in 2019 saying it’s now nearly halfway to Mayor de Blasio’s goal of creating and preserving 300,000 affordable homes by 2026.

Nessie Panton lives in one of them. She showed NY1 a life well lived, pointing to certificates and awards from volunteering, which she hung on her wall.

“Some from the Bronx River Alliance, some from Lambert (Houses), Phipps (Houses),” Panton said.

She lives in the Lambert Houses and moved in in 1974, the year after the development was built.

It’s “beautiful,” she said, “I thought I bought a house.”

She raised her family here and as a nurse's aide at Harlem Hospital was able to afford it because her rent stayed at 30% of her income.

Like all of the 731 apartments, the rents are subsidized by the federal government.

But now, the city and the owner, the non-profit Phipps Houses, are tearing down all 14 buildings that are considered antiquated, and putting up 14 new ones more than twice as tall.

There will be 1,665 permanently affordable residential units.

All tenants of the old 731 apartments will be temporarily relocated and offered an apartment in the new buildings.

The rest of the 934 new units will be leased through the city’s affordable housing lottery.

“2019 was a record year for new construction,” explained NYC Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Louise Carroll.

The de Blasio Administration announced Monday that in the last budget year, it financed the construction and preservation of 25,889 units of affordable housing, putting it nearly halfway (more than 147,000) toward its goal of creating and preserving 300,000 affordable units by 2026.

The city also announced fiscal year 2019 was a record year for creating units set aside for the homeless (3,030), and financing supportive housing (1,482).

“We keep producing housing at a record pace,” said Carroll.

That production comes at a cost: $1.59 billion last year in direct subsidies and tax incentives to developers, which allows them to make money even while keeping rents below market rates.

“I’m very satisfied,” said Panton about her new unit.

Phipps Houses has already relocated her to a new apartment in the first new building and it means a smaller place.

“It’s a lot of cleaning, now I don’t have to work here so much,” said Panton.

That of course frees up time for the retiree to continue to volunteer.

“No, I’m not gonna stop,” said Panton.