Housing developers and officials in New York City have a new tool to help them identify and preserve properties that are at risk of losing their affordability.
New York University’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy and its Institute for Affordable Housing Policy recently launched the Subsidized Housing Information Project (SHIP), an interactive database with extensive information on nearly 250,000 units of privately owned subsidized rental housing in the city.
“It will give us a holistic picture of where subsidized housing is located within the five boroughs and will help guide the City Council as we engage in policy discussion about what we need to do to protect our housing preservation programs,” said Council Speaker Christine Quinn.
Using data from SHIP, the Institute identified 227 properties throughout the city that are at risk of expiring out of their affordability program by the end of 2015. While many, if not most, property owners are likely to keep their developments affordable to residents, 34 properties containing more than 10,300 units are in nonrenewable programs, indicating that new subsidies will be required to keep them affordable.
SHIP allows housing advocates, government agencies, and others to access information about properties developed with four key government programs: Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) financing and insurance, HUD project-based rental assistance, the city and state Mitchell-Lama program, and the low-income housing tax credit program.
Information from 50 separate public and private data sources were consolidated, according to the Furman Center. For more information.
