Wednesday, May 4, 2011
News Separate and Unequal in Williamsburg's Affordable Housing
Posted by Henry Stewart on Wed, May 4, 2011 at 9:49 AM
The luxury condos jutting out along the North Brooklyn waterfront came with a modest catch: that the developers incorporate a percentage of affordable housing into their multi-million developments. A recent article in the Times provides a look at these working-class homes, which often share walls with their lavish counterparts but little else.
The entrances are separate. At Northside Piers, for example, residents enter from North Fourth Street, while the affordable building, which is farther from the water, opens onto North Fifth. The lobbies of the luxury sides have doormen, plush sofas and potted plants; the lobbies of their affordable counterparts are lined with tiles and little else. Tenants on the affordable side are not allowed access to any of the condos’ many amenities — pools, billiard rooms and Jacuzzis, to name a few.
Many residents of the affordable housing units are grateful to have received the lodgings, which were awarded by lottery and charge rents well below market rate. But there is something off-putting about the arrangement.
“I’m not complaining,” one resident of Northside Pier's affordable component told the paper. “But the landlord gets a huge tax break. The money comes from taxpayers. And I’m a taxpayer.”
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