The conversation surrounding affordable housing so often focuses on the distorted nature of New York City’s AMI calculations, what percentage of a given project will be affordable, and what an affordable rent really is. Much less common is a conversation with the developers who build affordable housing.
The Commercial Observer has a great interview with Lisa Gomez, the CEO of L+M Development Partners. L+M is currently building the new hip-hop museum in The Bronx (on The Bronx side of the 145th Street Bridge, and Sendero Verde, a 361-unit affordable project in East Harlem that will be built to passive house standards (between Madison/Park and 111/112).
Lisa notes how three main current issues are pushing affordable housing developers out of the market and into other forms of development:
…the expiration of 421a, a major development tax break; understaffed city housing agencies; and rising construction costs
To read more about how her company navigates between the simultaneous call for affordable housing from city council members with passionate anti-development reflexes, see the full article:
W.E.B. DuBois
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