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| This affordable housing development in West Farms Square is one of thousands that was financed this year by the city. (Photo: Jeanmarie Evelly) |
Bloomberg administration officials gathered in the courtyard of a West Farms apartment complex this morning to celebrate what they say has been a landmark year for the city’s affordable housing stock.
Officials announced that the city is ahead of schedule in Mayor Bloomberg’s New Housing Marketplace Plan, which aims to “create and preserve 165,000 units of affordable housing by the end of 2014.”
The number of units financed in the last fiscal year, which ended June 30, puts the city three-quarters of the way towards hitting that goal number, a fact hailed by officials as a major accomplishment in light of the recession and the budget restraints of the last few years.
“This is an amazing feat,” HPD Commissioner Mathew Wambua said of the 15,827 affordable housing units the city funded last year.
Among those are a set of eight high-rise apartment buildings along E. 178th Street in West Farms-known as the West Farms Square Plaza Apartments-which received millions of dollars in refinancing funds, in a deal between the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, city’s HDC and HPD as well as two local housing developers,