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In the latest effort to reduce the city’s shelter population, Housing Preservation and Development Department commissioner Vicki Been (pictured) has been personally calling developers who have received the 421-a abatement to tell them of a a new regulation that will require them to house homeless families.
These kinds of calls aren’t unprecedented, but are a sign that Been and Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration are pulling out the stops on their efforts to address the homeless crisis, which a spokeswoman from the HPD called a “moral imperative,” Crain’s reports.
The administration also recently altered the rules determining eligibility for affordable housing. In the past, affordable units were developed in exchange for tax breaks and available to low-income families (i.e. a three-person family making $49k per year) via lottery.
Developers are currently required to fill half of a property’s affordable units with residents from the local community. The new regulation will take half of these units and fill them with households in shelters, but have had previous addresses in the area. The city will also subsidize rents for those who can’t afford it.
This month, the city’s homeless population surged to more than 60,000 people—two-thirds of whom are in families with children—topping a previous record. [Crain’s]
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