When Mayor de Blasio held a press conference in May 2014 to debut his new affordable housing plan, his full-color presentation touted a project called Spring Creek in Brooklyn.
Spring Creek was flagged as a “case study” partnership between the city and developers to “create a strong, vibrant and self-sustaining neighborhood.”
But on Friday, the bulk of that project remained a big, ugly vacant field of weeds and abandoned roadway in East New York. More than 1,500 of 1,803 planned affordable units are now in a bureaucratic Twilight Zone — and may become less affordable as a result.
“There is no progress from the progressive mayor,” said the Rev. David Brawley, a leader of East Brooklyn Congregations, one of the groups sponsoring Spring Creek.
Brawley said the delays to Spring Creek caused by the de Blasio administration are particularly ironic given that the mayor cited the project in his promise to build or preserve 200,000 affordable units over 10 years.
“We saw it in the plan,” Brawley recalled Friday, standing next to the vast empty Spring Creek lot. “He incorporated our model into his plan, but now we are here in this place and he has not followed through.”
Since 2006, East Brooklyn Congregations has managed to build some 300 affordable units at the site through what’s known as the Nehemiah housing non-profit.
For the final phases of Nehemiah’s Spring Creek project, de Blasio’s Department of Design and Construction agreed to build infrastructure — gas, sewer and utility lines — for 225 homes and 1,295 apartments.
On Friday, DDC admitted the infrastructure is now way behind schedule and won’t be finished until “late 2017.”
The builders, which also include the housing group, Metro Industrial Areas Foundation and contractor Monadnock Construction, expected DDC to be well underway by December of this year, when they were scheduled to close on the financing.
They note that DDC gave their contractor notice to proceed with the work way back in January 2014.
On Friday, DDC spokeswoman Shavone Williams said the agency is “working diligently,” and so far has “conducted pre-construction surveys, inspected the sewers and tested the existing site conditions in the vicinity.”
She blamed delays on discovery of contaminated soil at the former dump site and a revised development layout that “includes changes to the size and placement of the sewers.”
The builders note the city knew all along the site was a former dump, and say the sewer changes were minor.
As a result, they now fear they’ll have to charge more for the houses and apartments they’re trying to build for low- and moderate-income families.
The income restrictions for a family of four, for instance, range from $25,900 to $112,190. The prices are lower due to taxpayer help. A single-family home that would go for $427,688 is reduced to $235,250, while a full price $616,000 two-family is cut to $415,000.
Because of delays, the builders say they’ll have to begin paying off the mortgage before selling a single unit. That will drive up the cost of the homes and apartments to homeowners.
Without further government subsidies, they estimate the sales prices will rise by 20- to 25%. That would put the $235,000 single-family back up to nearly $300,000; the $415,000 two-family would jump to $518,000.
“Mayor de Blasio moved quickly to get rid of Elmo and topless woman from Times Square. Unfortunately, he wasted the last 20 months taking soil samples in Spring Creek,” said Grant Lindsay of Metro IAF. “We’re ready to continue building hundreds more affordable homes and apartments.”
A spokeswoman for the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Elizabeth Rohlfing, said rents will not be affected by “additional remediation” and that delays of six to 12 months “should not materially affect” the units’ affordability.
“The City is committed fully to the success of the Nehemiah Spring Creek Project at Gateway Estates. This is a large-scale reconstruction that requires considerable interagency coordination. It was always planned to be a multi-phase project with both 1-2 family homes and multi-family rentals. HPD and our partner city agencies have been working closely with the development team to move the project forward and to ensure its affordability.”
Based on the Nehemiah’s experience so far, it’s clear the apartments are desperately needed. Nehemiah received 3,140 applications for the 81 homes currently under construction for the most recent phase of the Spring Creek project. That’s nearly 40 applications for every apartment.
Angela Lynch, 56, knows how these homes benefit New Yorkers struggling to find affordable living conditions.
Years ago she entered a lottery for an earlier phase of the Nehemiah project in another section of East New York. Her name was called, and for the first time, she was able to stop renting and buy a house for herself and her teenage son.
The home has a yard that allows her to grow a garden of tomatoes, peppers and herbs, she has her own parking space, and her 13-year-old loves the place. Her home has transformed her life.
“When I put the key in the door, to know I’m going to own something – that was worth it, to have waited that long,” she said. “I love my home.”
