$70K Income Required For 'Affordable' Greenpoint Apartments

GREENPOINT, BROOKLYN — A batch of "affordable" apartments are up for grabs on Freeman Street, but only to applicants who earn more than $72,000 a year. The units became available the same week Mayor Bill de Blasio announced his affordable housing program had broken city records.

Fourteen apartments at 215 Freeman St. and 197 Freeman St. hit the NYC Housing Connect lottery this week, none of which cost less than $2,100-a-month and all of which mandate incomes between $72,000 and $146,510 a year to apply, city records show.

Six apartments at 215 Freeman St. — which boasts a fitness center, yoga studio, laundry room, roof deck, bike storage and parking spots — will be on the market until Aug. 8.

One studio that costs $2,100-per-month, two one-bedrooms that cost $2,255-per-month and three two-bedrooms cost $2,715-per-month are available to households with an annual income between $72,000 and $146,510.

Eight apartments at 197 Freeman St. — where amenities include a gym, roof deck, laundry room and parking — will be on the market until Aug. 6.

Four one-bedrooms that cost $2,270-per-month and four two-bedrooms that cost $2,733-per-month are available to households with an annual income between $77,829 and $146,510.

The units hit the market the same week Mayor Bill de Blasio boasted the city had financed 32,000 affordable apartments, more so than in any other year in New York’s history.

"This plan is on target, this plan will be achieved," de Blasio said in a press conference Thursday. " Three-quarters of a million of our fellow New Yorkers will benefit and will know that they have affordable housing for the long haul for decades and decades to come."

But critics argue that the mayor's investment in the affordable housing program has caused housing for the homeless to plummet 12 percent in one year.

“The Mayor is spending billions on a plan that will do little to decrease record homelessness,” said Coalition for the Homess policy director Giselle Routhier.

“Mayor de Blasio can trumpet the headline number all he wants, but very little of this housing is going to the people who need it most.”

Photos courtesy of GoogleMaps/Nov. 2017