Congressman Jose E. Serrano is keeping his green streak alive.
Last week, Serrano spoke at the groundbreaking for a new “green building” that is coming to the South Bronx. Dubbed Via Verde, the 222-unit apartment complex will rise in a 1.5-acre vacant lot in Melrose. Solar panels, green roofs and rainwater retention systems in this LEED-certified building will work around a sprawling garden for residents. Best of all, according to the website of architects, Jonathon Rose Companies, 151 of the rental units will be reserved for low-income families.
“This is truly a turning point in how we will build affordable housing in our neighborhoods,” said Serrano at the groundbreaking.
Sounds like the kind of project that residents of such an economically and environmentally spurned part of the city would be doing backflips over.
But the news reminded me of a scene I witnessed in Serrano’s district in November.
I was pressed in the back of an unusually crowded Housing and Land Use Committee meeting for Bronx Community Board 2, in their Hunts Point office. The room was packed, because residents of a notoriously neglected building were coming together to speak out about their deplorable conditions and have their say about the selection of a new landlord. But, that’s another story, (feel free to read my version of it here). Before the board got to the issue of slumlords, there was a presentation for a new development in the neighborhood. A coalition of architects and a local non-profit presented plans for a new construction on the corner of Westchester and Intervale Avenues, using recycled materials, a green roof and bamboo floors. And again, best of all, 110 units of affordable housing would be in this proposed LEED-certified construction.
The architects and advocates sought a letter of approval from the community board for their idea. I thought to myself; “This is exactly what the neighborhood needs. Green and affordable? The board will love it.”
I thought wrong. The board declined to offer a letter of support for the plan.
“We understand what the city considers ‘affordable,’” said one committee member, putting air quotes around the word. “That’s not what this community considers affordable.”
At issue was how “affordable” is defined. Developers are rewarded for affordable offerings via tax abatements and subsidies from the city. To qualify, developers use the city’s metrics for affordability – offer a unit to someone making a certain percentage under Area Median Income and you get a corresponding subsidy.
But Area Median Income is calculated using citywide data. The Upper East Side and The South Bronx are counted together for income, and are given the same standard for affordability. The current median income at a citywide level, according to the New York Department of Housing and Urban Development, is almost $70,000 for a family of three (the average family size in the South Bronx is 3.11 people per household). Based on the 2000 census, the median income for Bronx Community Board 2 was $15,000 a year – almost a third of the citywide number.
In a development like the Banana Kelly project in Hunts Point, which opened more than a year ago, affordable units are reserved for people making no more than 60 percent of New York City median income. That means an individual could make no more than $29,760 a year to get into the building. Not a hard feat, considering that most people in the neighborhood make half that.
The fears expressed at the crowded community board meeting, were that nice new green and shiny buildings like this – while noble in intent – would be more likely to fill up with middle income people from other neighborhoods, further squeezing out people from a neighborhood where the word “gentrification” is uttered with looks over the shoulder for the boogeyman.
The developers of Via Verde do not have the income band breakdowns for affordable units listed on their webpage yet. They should. These kinds of developments could be a watershed for turning life around for the community, or one that rolls right over residents. Affordable housing measures were introduced by the city and are used by developers with noble intent. But good intentions aren’t good enough. Via Verde may well fill up with people who have spent their whole lives in the area and could really use a hand, but it may not. Congressman Serrano lent the new development his endorsement last week, now it is his responsibility to make sure this building does what it is intended to do. Green roofs are fine and dandy, but it is who gets to live under them that matters.