Hundreds Of Affordable Homes Could Be Built In Bed-Stuy

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT — Hundreds of below-market and affordable apartments could be built in Bed-Stuy under a new coalescing plan.

City officials unveiled plans for the Bed-Stuy Housing Initiative at a Wednesday workshop, packed with local residents who provided feedback, said Community Board 3 District Manager Henry Butler.

Five city-controlled sites are slotted for development and may include lots on Myrtle Avenue between Marcy and Nostrand avenues, an informal skate park at Fulton Street and Utica Avenue, Fulton Street between Howard and Ralph avenues, the intersection of Fulton Street and Howard Avenue and, finally, Fulton Street and Saratoga Avenue, Butler said.

“All of this is going to be housing,” Butler said. “It’s just a matter where senior housing, supportive housing and working housing will go.”

Officials hope to build about 600 affordable housing units to Bed-Stuy, Brownstoner reported.

The plans, which are still coming together, will focus on providing housing for Bed-Stuy residents who increasingly find themselves squeezed out of their own community, Butler said.

The Bed-Stuy Housing Initiative, launched through the city’s Department of Housing
Preservation and Development in 2019, began with a year of meetings and roundtables with neighborhood residents.

“In this situation HPD said they wanted input in the community in terms of what kind of housing goes in the community,” he said.

He said many units would be geared toward residents who make less than the median income for the neighborhood — a metric used in other affordable housing projects which is often criticized for pricing many residents out of consideration. These below-market units likely will be somewhere between 60 to 100 percent of median income, he said.

The initiative also aims to provide support for existing tenants and homeowners by offering emergency funds to forestall foreclosures and fix-it loans for repairs, Brownstoner reported.

Initiative organizers plan roundtables and workshops in February and March, respectively. Butler said requests for proposals on the housing projects likely will be in late spring or early summer.