Yes, Sunset Park's Proposed Affordable Development Will Be Open to Undocumented Residents

SUNSET PARK and WINDSOR TERRACE, BROOKLYN, NY — The Fifth Avenue Committee's planned affordable development at the site of the current Sunset Park Library will follow all city guidelines for affordable housing lotteries, the project's manager said Friday, meaning undocumented residents will be able to apply.

If built, the development would reserve at least half of its 49 units for residents of CB7, which includes Sunset Park and Windsor Terrace. The eight story structure would also turn over its bottom two floors, plus its cellar, to the Brooklyn Public Library, which would fill it with a new, larger, and modern branch.

The project was discussed at length at a Community Board 7 hearing Thursday night, with residents raising many questions about the project.

On Friday, Michael Rose, the project's manager with the Fifth Avenue Committee (FAC) addressed a group of questions put to the organization by community activist organization UPROSE.

The city's affordable hosing lotteries don't ask for the citizenship status of applicants, Rose said, and FAC won't, either. Applicants simply need to have a Tax Identification Number to apply, which can be obtained regardless of citizenship.

FAC hosts free housing workshops targeting low-income residents around the borough, Rose said. The workshops help prepare people to apply for lotteries, and direct those with low credit scores towards credit counseling. (Applicants with scores below a certain level can be ruled ineligible, though new city rules dictate that can't be the only reason someone is kept out of an affordable housing lottery pool.)

Rose said FAC makes its workshops known to community groups, and will continue to do so. It will also advertise the new development at the Sunset Park Library itself, as well as at other organizations, such as Brooklyn's Workforce1 center and local adult education centers.

Affordable housing lotteries cannot differentiate between those who have lived in a neighborhood for a long time and those who recently moved there, and that will also be the case with FAC's planned development, Rose said.

However, he added that the organization's goal is to make sure its outreach targets low-income Sunset Parkers "so that there's more applications from people who need the housing lottery."

When it comes to factoring in outside income (besides annual wages), affordable housing lotteries do not consider retirement accounts, Rose said. However, a household's savings, property, or other assets can't exceed the annual income level of the pool the home is applying as part of. For example, if a home is applying for a unit open to those making $55,000 or less annually, that household's outside assets can't total more than $55,000, Rose said (again, with the exclusion of retirement accounts).

FAC's proposed development will host units open to households making 30, 40, 50, 60, and 80 percent of Area Median Income, or AMI. Rose said he agreed with the criticism that New York's AMI is too high, seeing as it factors in incomes from all five boroughs, plus Westchester.

But he said census data shows that 58 percent of CB7's population makes 80 percent of AMI or less, meaning the building's most expensive units will still be affordable to more than half of the residents in the area.

CB7 will likely cast an advisory opinion on the proposal later this month, according to district manager Jeremy Laufner.

Pictured at top: the proposed library and affordable development. Rendering courtesy of the Brooklyn Public Library.