How Subsidized Housing Investments Can Be Revitalizing and Profitable

Source: The New York Times

A recent piece in the New York Times highlights a few projects that demonstrate how “affordable housing can still be done right in New York City.” New projects, from the renovated “Arverne View” to the East Harlem Learning Center, have brought tangible improvements to neighborhoods through genuine community investment and serve as a model for cities across the U.S.

Ocean Village, a housing project in the Rockaways that had been steadily declining before being wholly devastated by Hurricane Sandy, has since been renamed “Arverne View” and refurbished by L&M, a developer of subsidized housing. Committed to the community, L&M did not raise the rents for the current low-income residents, but still made a profit receiving government payment and renting out available apartments at market rates.

In a similar endeavor, the collaboration between developers Jonathan Rose Companies and nonprofit Harlem RBI brought the East Harlem Learning Center to life. Once a vacant lot, the project became an 11-story residential tower, solely comprised of affordable housing, which is linked to a pavilion for nonprofit offices and a local public school.

These projects demonstrate that housing projects that consider the holistic needs of a community make a real difference in revitalizing neighborhoods.

Read full story at: The New York Times

Justice & Poverty, News
Justice & Poverty, News