QUESTION
How can apartment sizes be increased in low-income housing projects to ensure dignity for residents?
0:38:19
·
4 min
Council Member Oswald Feliz inquires about the possibility of increasing apartment sizes in a low-income housing project, highlighting the need for low-income families to live in dignified conditions.
- The potential for modifying the plan to enlarge apartments, given the significant size and height of the lot, is discussed.
- Katherine Gray from Gilbane Development Company mentions a reduction in unit count from 291 to 283 to enhance apartment sizes.
- A balance between affordability, apartment size, and other project goals such as design and economic development is deemed essential.
- HPD emphasizes the importance of quality of life, noting improvements made to the units including additional closets and basement storage.
Oswald Feliz
0:38:19
Just curious had a similar scenario on my district.
0:38:23
I'm just wondering if we've looked into maybe modifying the plan, making the apartments bigger.
0:38:30
I mean, that looks like I don't know the area well, but that's that looks like a large lot, and that's also tall buildings.
0:38:36
So I'm just wondering if if we've looked into potentially modifying the plan, making the apartments bigger, I mean, you know, these bedrooms look like closets.
0:38:46
And this is obviously a building for low income families.
0:38:50
Low income families deserve to live in dignity.
0:38:53
So, yeah, just wondering if we've looked into maybe modifying the plan.
0:38:57
I mean, again, you have a lot of space from left to right and from top to bottom.
Katherine Gray
0:39:01
So we did reduce the unit count from 291 down to 283 to make apartments larger.
0:39:11
And it is a large site, which is what allows us to produce the unit count that we were
Oswald Feliz
0:39:19
anywhere we could make additional progress on that and make them a little bit bigger just to make sure that the community is happy with the project.
Katherine Gray
0:39:29
I think it goes back to the larger conversation of in the balance, the various goals that we are attempting to achieve.
0:39:40
So there are a range of issues that we are addressing.
0:39:48
1 of them is the general affordability level of the apartments.
0:39:53
Another is the individual size of apartments.
0:39:57
Another is the design and the appearance of the building.
0:40:03
Another is related to the economic development opportunities within the project, both related to the the cultural center and the jobs related to construction and management maintenance of the building.
0:40:20
So all of those things are going into the mix.
0:40:23
And the number one priority that we've heard has been to make the units as affordable as possible.
0:40:33
One question that we hear is this project affordable to me.
0:40:38
As a Brownsville resident, which means bringing the AMI levels down substantially.
0:40:44
And if we divert the money to address that issue than in the balance of the things.
0:40:53
Yeah.
Oswald Feliz
0:40:54
Oh, we're cool.
0:40:55
Well, hope hope that we could continue looking into that issue.
0:41:00
In this building, in this project, but also on other projects.
0:41:04
Again, we create housing for low income people and these families deserve to in dignity, they deserve a large room, not a room that looks like a closet, not a room that you could barely fit in a twin bed or something like that.
Arvind Sindhwani
0:41:17
Thank you.
Aleena Farishta
0:41:18
I just like to add council member that, you know, HPD does deeply care about out quality of life and the livability of these apartments, making sure all of them, you know, have light and air.
0:41:33
Our design guidelines are meant for all of the units that we finance.
0:41:39
Through city subsidies.
0:41:41
There are set guidelines.
0:41:42
And as Catherine mentioned, we've increased the units of all of the units from what we initially had.
0:41:50
Now, you know, each of these units have at least 2 plus closets for a one bedroom, you know, the three bedrooms shown here have at least 4 closets.
0:42:02
They each have free storage in the in the basement as well.
0:42:07
And there are laundry, you know, on on each floor.
0:42:11
There's there's a lot of other things here that we're adding in including, you know, meeting our sustainability goals, all of these things are being balanced.
0:42:20
And we do care about, you know, of ability.
0:42:24
And, of course, we'll continue to strive for the best project that we can that we can do here.