“Poor doors” may now be banished, but one new Brooklyn development is going a step further by pushing needy tenants int🌟💖o a handful of low-income buildings.
As lawmakers pat themselves on the back for abolishing separate entrances for low-income residents in new buildings that get tax breaks for providing affordableܫ units, the more affluent residents of Greenpoint Landing won’t have to risk rubbing elbows with their less-fortunate neighbors.
That’s because the develope𓆉rs have set aside three of their 10 towers for below-market-rate apartments only.
An already-existing zoning law allows the developer to get around a new provision tucked into the rent-regulation bill passed last week that prevents landlords from segregating tenants based on income, or having separate entrances for residents living in cheaper⭕ apartments.
And affordable-housing advo꧂cates, who fought to take the poor doors off the hinges, are not happy.
“These develo🌌pers should be building affordable housing without creating segregation,” said Maritza Silva-Farrell, a coordinator for Real Affordability for All.
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams agreed.
“The poor door is no more, and there s♓hould be no facsimile of an effort to replace it,” he said.
Developers Greenpoint Landing Associates and L+M Development Partners plan to open the first of the low-cost buildings at 𒐪21ꦉ Commercial St. in about a year.
The building will have 93 units, which will go to fami🌊lies who make between 40 percent and 60 percent of the 🐼“area median income.”
A rep for♋ the developers🐟 noted the affordable buildings were being built first.
While city officials could not undo the zoning laws that allowed for “off-site” af𒀰fordable housing, they did manage to reduce the city subsidy for the project.
“Economic diversity an𝔍d integration are priorities for the administration,” said Wiley Norvell, a City Hall spokesman.