According to Secret NYC, luxury apartment buildings will soon have to offer some of their apartment space to the homeless.
Luxury building developers have made an agreement with New York City to allocate a certain number of units in their buildings as “affordable housing” options, in exchange for certain tax breaks.
Bloomberg reported that if the building owners are unable to fill units with tenants from the city’s affordable housing lottery (which you can enter here), the owners will have to open up those vacant apartments to local homeless shelter residents.
There are apparently about 200 apartments still vacant this week, which could be filled as early as next week by those living in homeless shelters with help from the NYC Department of Housing Preservation & Development. The rent for these apartments will be paid for by the city, and the apartments will be offered to people and families who can live independently and do not need extra social services.
The vacant apartments are in the middle-income range, with requirements like a single person who makes as much as $97,110 and families of three with a combined income of $124,930. Often the tenants who enter the lottery don’t realize just how complex the process can be and how long the income-verification process takes, resulting in the apartments staying empty.
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