In the near future the real estate of the Big Apple can be filled up with a huge amount of basement apartments. The fact that the city authorities have decided to launch the pilot program for affordable housing. It will cover the Eastern part of new York where there are many houses with one or two apartments and free basement floors.
The authors of the bill were members of the City Council of new York: brad lander, Fernando Cabrera, Rafael Espinal and Inez Barron. The document supports the initiative of mayor Bill De Blasio, who has allocated $11.7 million for the first phase of its implementation. The Eastern part of the city was not chosen by chance. There are the largest number of residential buildings of one and two apartments, whose cellars are formally empty. In many cases, they are illegally occupied by local residents.
These areas plan to fully reconstruct, convert them into residential apartments. To do this, the construction Department of new York (DOB) needs to change the existing rules of operation of the basement. The authorities want to solve two problems at once: increase the number of affordable housing in the city and to help the homeowners of these buildings to obtain a legitimate profit on the lease. For this they will allocate special subsidies at the minimum the changeover basements and bringing them into condition.
«The city is using innovative strategy to unlock affordable housing at all levels, including basements. This program will increase the number of apartments in East new York, and provide additional income for homeowners. Our administration will continue to use any tool by which we can solve the problem of affordable housing,» — said in a statement De Blasio
The authors of the bill while that does not call the exact timing of implementing the first phase of the program. However, they believe that the process will happen quickly, since all project participants are interested in its speedy implementation.
