NYCHA to Announce Sites for Mixed-Income Development on Public Housing Land In August

The troubled New York City Housing Authority revealed to reporters yesterday that it would announce in August the first round of requests for proposals from developers looking to build 50/50 market rate/affordable buildings on parcels of the authority’s land—a crucial step toward balancing NYCHA’s infamously strapped finances and contributing toward Mayor Bill de Blasio’s ambitious affordable housing plan.

At a press briefing at NYCHA’s downtown offices, a spokeswoman told the press that it remained unclear whether the initial phase of RFPs, will be for vacant lots on two, three or four of the authority’s 328 public housing developments. The construction will be part of the de Blasio administration’s kitchen-sink “NextGeneration” plan intended to turn the authority from running hundred million yearly operating deficits to running equally large annual surpluses—and the authority continued to refuse to confirm or deny whether it would sell parcels to the developers of the mixed-income buildings.