88,200 New Yorkers Trying to get one of 55 Affordable(?) Units

This is probably the rich door

The Upper West Side building that made "poor doors" a policy issue has been flooded with low-income New Yorkers trying to get inside. The developer claims that over 88,000 applications for the 55 affordable housing rental units have been received so far.

Gary Barnett, president of 1 Riverside Park (the rich door side with pool, gym, bowling alley, indoor playground, "Yoga, Pilates, Personal Training and Kinesis Rooms," golf simulator, etc.), told the NY Times, "I guess people like it. It shows that there’s a tremendous demand for high-quality affordable housing in beautiful neighborhoods." The Times adds, "Mr. Barnett said 88,200 applications had been received by early Monday. Officials with the NYC Housing Partnership, the nonprofit that will screen applicants for the developer, said that applications could reach 90,000 by the time the submission period ends at 11:59 p.m. Monday. The total will not be known until mailed applications, which must be postmarked by Monday, are counted."

The building

As Chris Robbins explained last year, "The new residents of One Riverside Park [will] enjoy their 'rock climbing wall' and $25 million views. At the adjacent [470 West 62nd Street], Normal Humans can reside in relative comfort for $833/month in a studio, $895/in a one bedrooom, and $1,082 for a two-bedroom. The catch is that you have to earn between $30,240 and $50,340, and submit to a litany of credit and background checks and the kind of crippling uncertainty that rich people aren't usually acquainted with."

Barnett insisted, "The most important thing is to provide affordable housing. It’s what people really want."

Gothamist.com

1 Riverside Park aka 40 Riverside Boulevard

Mayoral spokesman Wiley Norvell said, “We oppose so-called poor doors and will change the necessary rules so that when affordable housing is provided on-site, we will not allow separate entrances based on income."  

No matter what the government calls the people that will be selected for these units they are not for poor New Yorkers nor homeless. The owners of the buildings will be getting tax abatements and other permits to make these crumbs available. Meanwhile Poor New Yorkers will keep becoming  homeless as they loose they rent stabilized apartments they might have now. These apartments start at a fair or even low rents but every year they go up the maximum allowed by law. These means that as these retired or disabled people depending on a small pension or social security pay these increases it will come the time they can not afford the apartments( rent stabilized ). It’s pure simple math.

 As the apartments go up every year these people incomes can not keep up with the increases. The tax payers will pay for those Luxury 55 units and they will pay for the rent stabilized units and they will pay for the shelters for those who become homeless and they will pay for new apartments for the qualified homeless that lost their apartments to the rent increases the city approves every year through a group of landlord caring group appointed by the mayor.  It’s all a game to fool some people into believing that the city is giving luxury apartments to the poor thus having a reputation of a merciful fair government (I heard this by commenters at FaceBook) It’s a joke but no body will be laughing except!! the developers who will get permits for buildings that are too tall and sometimes in the wrong places for a measly number of apartments for a measly number of people. It will be better for the tax payer and the the working poor and non working poor to get a better effort in securing permanent shelters, I mean apartments that they can afford. Now wait a minute! the city just passed a bill that the people that get those units will be able to use the gym, sauna and benches outside the building. The can also enter through the main door, which before they could not and had special elevators marked for them. You see the building management people of apartments of that kind were keeping the lucky people that got the cheap units from utilizing the luxury commodities of the building, even the entrance!!!! The city let them have it though in a one two punch. Now those making $30-45k a year can rub shoulders with the ones making a million  a year. What a city government we have. By the way the name of the government in the city is “Progressive.” I’m ticked all over and feeling like throwing up, it most the building lunch I had.

Adam

adam@adamfoxie.com

Few Facts:

There are hundreds of thousands of homeless people in the United States. The picture below shows the estimated numbers by state. California has by far the largest amount of homeless people.

NY: 77,420

This a homeless problem in Australia as well. The ratio is 1 in every 200 people are homeless. Look at the following statistics taken from Homelessness in Australia: