New Idea for Ghost Condos: Developer Grants to House Families Making About $100K
The Bloomberg Administration has been talking lately about what to do with moribund condos left under-tenanted and sometimes unfinanced in the recession -- what Christine Quinn called the "tarnished trophies" of the late boom. Some have been opened to the homeless. Last week Elizabeth Dwoskin mentioned assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries' plan to turn 65 Brooklyn condos into moderate-income dwelling or homeless facilities.
The Times gets to that today, and also to an alternate plan from the New York State Housing Finance Agency -- one that would distribute $5 million in government funds as grants to help, shall we say, better-than-moderate income buyers get into those ghost condos. "A single person or couple making $92,160 or less would qualify to buy a $380,000 apartment," says the Times. " A family of three or more making $107,520 would qualify to buy a $411,000 apartment." It has been argued that you need $123,322 a year to be middle-class in the city anymore, but did you ever imagine someone making $92,160 could get a $40,000 government grant -- payable to the developer -- to move into a condo?
For purposes of comparison, the NYCHA ceiling for public housing applicants is $61,450 for a family of four.
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