Bronx affordable housing opens for families making up to $97,000 a year
It's a somewhat depressing fact of life that even the relatively well-off need subsidized housing in New York, and as such, new developments often reserve affordable rentals for families making well above a neighborhood's median income. Webster Commons, a new middle- and low-income rental complex in the Bronx, starts taking applications tomorrow, and apartments will be available to families with a combined income of up to $97,400 a year.
The affordable housing complex is part of a larger push to develop the area along Webster Avenue, a Norwood thoroughfare that sits at the nexus of the Bronx Botanical Garden and Woodlawn Cemetery, and is also near Fordham University. The 1.5-mile stretch was re-zoned in 2011 to allow for development of commercial, community, and mixed-income residential buildings, with hopes of tapping into both the university and the surrounding neighborhood's demand for more retail options. The plan to revamp an area known mostly for parking spots and auto body shops was first concocted by Fordham, Montefiore Medical Center, the New York Botanical Garden, and the Bronx Zoo, Crain's reports, before being approved as part of former Mayor Bloomberg's not-totally-successful plan to add 165,000 new units of affordable housing to the city by 2014. Similar projects, in which developers transform an entire neighborhood, are also underway in East New York.
Studios in the building start at $845 for a single person making between $30,686 and $35,280 a year, and the priciest option in the complex will be a $1,692/month three-bedroom, which could be rented by a family of six with a combined income of $97,400. (A full list of options, income requirements, and application instructions can be found here.) The building is slated to have an on-site super, security cameras, a laundry room, and the option to pay for on-site parking. Applications are due by February 20, and lest we forget, you can also apply for another affordable development over in Parkchester. If you weren't already eyeing the Bronx as your best hope for outer-borough affordability, now may be the time to start.
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