Local politicians are asking the federal government to help preserve an East Harlem affordable housing complex built in 1974 under the Mitchell-Lama program, which has provided housing for low- and middle-income families for decades.
The Lakeview Apartment Complex is threatened due to what lawmakers are calling a “unique challenge.” The land it’s built on — overlooking Central Park from Fifth Avenue — has become incredibly desirable real estate. But the development’s purpose is to provide 446 units of affordable, not luxury, housing.
As a result, the street rents for the Lakeview Apartments is considerably higher than East Harlem’s average market rent. In order to preserve affordable housing on the site Congressman Adriano Espaillat and Chuck Schumer penned a letter to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development requesting that federal housing assistance programs match the building’s street rent, not the market rent.
“An affordable complex like Lakeview is a precious and rare asset that provides a safe clean and affordable place to live for hundreds of hard-working families and seniors and HUD needs to use every tool in the box to preserve this complex’s affordability,” Schumer said in a statement.
About 50 percent of the Lakeview Apartments’ tenants depend on some form of federal rent assistance, the lawmakers said.
The lawmakers argued that the complex’s existing Rental Assistance Payment (RAP) — which has been extended short-term — be supplemented by the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program. Under the RAD program building tenants would be able to convert their assistance to a 20-year, Section 8 Project Based Rental Assistance contract, the lawmakers said.
Ultimately Espaillat and Schumer would like to work to tailor an agreement that would ensure the Lakeview Apartments Complex remain affordable.
“The Lakeview Complex is an example of our ability to provide affordable housing for New York residents and it is up to us to ensure that it remains an affordable and accessible option for residents within the community,” Espaillat said in a statement to sources.
Via source
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