Q&A
Affordable housing in the Willets Point project
2:52:17
·
125 sec
Council Member Moya inquires about the affordable housing component of the Willets Point project, particularly focusing on how it aligns with the lower AMI (Area Median Income) of areas like Corona. Frank Monterisi, Executive Vice President of Related, explains how they adjusted affordability levels based on local needs and stakeholder input.
- The project team worked to lower affordability levels to better match the local community's needs
- The affordable housing plan aims to balance spreadsheet projections with on-the-ground realities
- The approach developed for Phase 1 will be carried forward into Phase 2 of the project
Francisco P. Moya
2:52:17
In my community, you know, it has a much lower AMI than the multi county regions used as a baseline to determine the city's affordable housing.
2:52:29
But can you explain the income levels associated with the deeply affordable units in this project that actually aligned with areas like Corona?
Frank Monterisi
2:52:39
Well, I mean, if council member, you remember remember about 6 months ago or maybe it was 8 months ago when we were trying to put the phase 1 deal together and and and finalizing the AMIs.
2:52:49
And he came to me and he said, said, we need to lower we need to lower some of the affordability levels here.
2:52:54
And and and, you know, it was that conversation.
2:52:57
It was that, you know, it was it was it was you as the as the as the as the council member for the district, right, that that communicated to us that, you know, we needed to rethink the levels and come up with what closed on in November.
2:53:10
The fact of the matter is that in affordable housing, sometimes you can get a little wonky, you can get a lot of spreadsheets, but it comes down to what we're doing is providing housing for New Yorkers.
2:53:19
And and and it really needs to be when you when you look at one of these projects, you need to you need to match you know, you need to match the spreadsheet with, you know, with the reality on the ground.
2:53:29
And for that to happen, there needs to be good consistent communication between the development team all the local stakeholders, you know, your your yourself being, you know, you know, 1st among those.
2:53:40
And then but but everybody and I can I can think back to my time working on this project over, you know, over 10 years?
2:53:48
And again, you know, having grown up in the having grown up in the area, you know, those those conversations are important so that so that we can so we can create an affordable housing project that that meets the needs of the local community and then there is around it.
2:54:03
And so, really, like, that that's what it's all about is is is figuring out the affordability levels for the HPD and matching them to the affordability levels in the disk And I think what we've come up with for phase 1, which we're going to take forward into phase 2, is is it takes all that into
Francisco P. Moya
2:54:20
account.
2:54:21
Great.
2:54:21
Thank you.