Turn Vacant NYC Lots Into Affordable Homes, Officials Say

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, BROOKLYN — A now-vacant lot in Bed-Stuy could sprout 12 new, affordable housing units with deeds in the hands of whoever lives there. And similar abandoned city-owned spots across Brooklyn and the city can do the same.

It's only a matter of a $44 million drop in a bucket billions of dollars deep.

So said a group of lawmakers and advocates who gathered on frigid Friday afternoon at the corner of Howard Avenue and Madison Street, right outside a vacant lot where Habitat For Humanity plans to build an affordable housing co-op.

They called for increased state funding — $18 million more for a $44 million total — for per-unit new home ownership construction.

State Sen. Zellnor Myrie said the state can provide an affordable path to home ownership.

"We have a lot of folks who talk to us about the American dream, they talk about what it should look like. Here," he said, pointing at the vacant lot, "is not what it should look like."

Myrie was joined by fellow state Sen. Velmanette Montgomery and Assemblywoman Latrice Walker, who successfully pushed forward the funding legislation from her chamber to the state senate.

The money could make an immediate impact on the vacant lot where they stood, said Katrell Lewis, senior advocacy manager for Habitat For Humanity.

Habitat For Humanity workers plan to build a 12-unit co-op at the Howard Avenue and Madison Street lot. Increasing the funds will mean they can start building 140 affordable housing units across the city, Lewis said.

"Between Sen. Myrie's and Sen. Montgomery's districts Habitat For Humanity can start to build over 100 units of affordable home ownership today, if we were to see that increase," he said.

The increase would be a shift in affordable housing funding, which largely focuses on rentals and not home ownership.

Walker said the state currently funds affordable home construction at $25,000, the same level it was in 1985. She said the price of chewing gum and potato chips have increased, but not funds that can help people own homes.

"How is it that we're saying to the home ownership community, home development community that we're going to still fund your building opportunity at those same rates?" she said. "So this bill increases that level to $75,000 per unit."

The legislation also includes a requirement that any new homes built with the money must remain affordable for low-income people in perpetuity, Walker said.

The funding is currently up for consideration in the state senate. More information about Habitat For Humanity NYC can be found here.