Downtown housing revival shuts out working class

[leftWNYbecauseofBS]

How can they call $390,384 affordable family housing?

Where have you been living?

The biggest rub in all of it, at least to me, is that this affordable housing is being locally supported by people who own homes that are about 25% to 50% the value of these 'affordable units' and that's before taxes.

Then, on top of this, the preacher network goes out and says there are too many white people living in the nice places and we need a slice of that cake as well. Shameful.

[WNYresident]

In the work reality. Well common sense reality.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality

Reality is the state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they may appear or might be imagined.[1] Reality includes everything that is and has been, whether or not it is observable or comprehensible. A still broader definition includes that which has existed, exists, or will exist.

I don't believe $390,384 should be called affordable housing. There are adults that lack the mental capacity to manage their own personal finances. This is fact.
By having people repeat this statement younger people actually think $390,000 units are affordable.

Look what Monty's sells.

New 2016 28x48 Front Kitchen 3Bedroom/2Bath Double Wide.........$43,995.00

Includes Delivery, Setup, Central Air, and 1 year Manufacturer Warranty

Looking for a 3 bedroom 2 bath 28' wide double for under $45,000. After months of negotiations with the manufacturer here it is.

This $43,995.00 28x48 3BR/2BA double has an AMAZING floor plan.The design is open, and is fully functional.

The front kitchen design of this of 28x48 3BR/2BA is open with plenty of cabinets and countertops. You will also find a island with sink that also serves as an eat at bar/food preparation area. The beautiful window set in the kitchen /dining area are great for letting that natural light pour in.

The master bedroom is spacious and features a walk-in closet. The master bath has a deep corner Garden tub with a seperate shower. As well as dual sinks for added convenience.

We upgraded the windows to residential low E thermopanes. In addition we added Zone 3 northern insulation, vinyl siding, shingle roof, 8 ft sidewalls and much much more!!!

Come in and take a look at our $43,995.00 28x48 3BR/2BA home. Supplies on this special priced unit are very limited!

http://www.montysheavybuilthomes.com/



We have empty lots throughout Buffalo.

I understand there are utility hookups but at least look at all options other than the tax payer has unlimited funds.

Look at the value that has been wasted with what is left standing of the A.D. Price buildings or any public housing type buildings. Overly built and left to rot. Why weren't they kept up?

$20,300,000 for 52 new dwellings could buy a lot of Monty's $45,000 units.

52 of Monty's homes = 52 X $45,000 = $2,340,000

I know this is a loose example but I'm tired of watching money just wasted.


Stop import refugees and help those who are in need locally first.

If you import 52 more families you just removed 52 units from the market.

[HipKat]

Comparable apartments don't cost the same.

Hint: there is nothing comparable.

You're right. The ones in Midtown Manhattan are half the size of the lofts in Downtown Buffalo

[nogods]

Let's build a trendy apartment complex right next to an "affordable" housing complex, then see which one ends up uninhabitable 20 years from now.

[leftWNYbecauseofBS]

I know this is a loose example but I'm tired of watching money just wasted.

You don't get it. 'Solving' poverty is big business. If you actually solve it you make many people who get rich off poverty....poor.

[WNYresident]

I totally get it. It's poverty pimps.

Lot of money is going to be made by tearing down those A.D. Price buildings and building new ones. Specially if you are a politically connected developer.

[WNYresident]

Battle brewing over plans to replace A.D. Price public housing

A battle royale is raging over the future of one of the city's storied public housing projects.

The Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority wants to tear down the vacant A.D. Price Courts buildings to make way for a smaller but more modern low-income development, designed for today's needs.

Its critics want to prevent demolition, arguing that the buildings are worth saving and can be renovated instead.

http://buffalonews.com/2016/12/25/bm...ime=1482703857

It's about the "separate but equal" treatment afforded to the city's black community, and the unique but surprising role – both positive and negative – that A.D. Price played in raising up a black middle class in Buffalo.

Why isn't the "separate but equal" given to the entire community? Why must race be involved?

"We should do whatever the community can do to hold onto some remnant so that the capacity to learn from it lives on," said Alfred D. Price Jr., a professor of architecture and planning at University at Buffalo, and son of the former property manager that the East Side complex is named for. "Because the built-in, structural racism is not going to evaporate anytime soon."

It won't evaporate if you continually cater to it.

The new units will still be available to anyone eligible for public housing, with preference given to former residents who want to move back, said Modesto Candelario, the housing agency's assistant executive director. Rents will still be set at 30 percent of income.

Why would previous tenants be given preference if they moved away in the first place?

"I’m always concerned when somebody wants to take something that has a value to it," said Joseph Mascia, a city resident and former BMHA commissioner, who spoke out against the plan.

So what is he thinking? Just remodeling the existing apartments?

Instead, he urged the agency to photograph the old buildings and artifacts, preserve and incorporate the sculptures into the new complex, and install historic plaques and markers to commemorate the history. "What is important is that the community not lose a piece of community history that is already by and large forgotten," he said.

I'm just going to say it. I think it's a stupid idea. I don't see a reason to preserve an apartment complexes history. It isn't like the complex is 500 years old. It is just a bunch of apartments that weren't kept up. Correct?

Originally named Willert Park Court, the A.D. Price complex was designed by Buffalo architect Fred Bacchus and was constructed by the U.S. Housing Agency under the Housing Act of 1937, as part of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.

If this was so important to begin with why was it let to fall into disrepair ?

Buffalo already had public housing projects in other areas, such as for the Italian and Irish communities on the West Side and in South Buffalo. But the black community in Buffalo had been informally barred from those other projects, which were largely for the white population, and blacks demanded one of their own.

Is this true? What housing projects were built for Italian people? Or Irish? etc?

And Mascia said demolition is unnecessary. "The buildings are structurally sound. By being open to the elements, they've deteriorated," he said. "Housing Authority policy has always been demolition by neglect."

And who's fault is that?

[WNYresident]

New 2016 28x48 Front Kitchen 3Bedroom/2Bath Double Wide.........$43,995.00

Includes Delivery, Setup, Central Air, and 1 year Manufacturer Warranty

....Limited Time Offering....



Looking for a 3 bedroom 2 bath 28' wide double for under $45,000. After months of negotiations with the manufacturer here it is.

This $43,995.00 28x48 3BR/2BA double has an AMAZING floor plan.The design is open, and is fully functional.

The front kitchen design of this of 28x48 3BR/2BA is open with plenty of cabinets and countertops. You will also find a island with sink that also serves as an eat at bar/food preparation area. The beautiful window set in the kitchen /dining area are great for letting that natural light pour in.

The master bedroom is spacious and features a walk-in closet. The master bath has a deep corner Garden tub with a seperate shower. As well as dual sinks for added convenience.

We upgraded the windows to residential low E thermopanes. In addition we added Zone 3 northern insulation, vinyl siding, shingle roof, 8 ft sidewalls and much much more!!!


Come in and take a look at our $43,995.00 28x48 3BR/2BA home. Supplies on this special priced unit are very limited!

You know a 15 year mortgage on this is affordable.

[WNYresident]

Urban myth busting: New rental housing and median-income households

At City Observatory, we feel compelled to enter into this void, and we’ll start by doing our own urban myth-busting. First up: Does building new high-priced apartments, affordable only by middle- and upper-income families, make housing less affordable for lower income households?

We’ve heard this claim time and again in public hearings: new rental housing charges higher rents than existing apartments, and must therefore be making affordability problems worse.

Even Harvard University’s Joint Center on Housing Studies reprised this line in their recent report: “50 percent of rental households make less than $34,000 per year, but only 10 percent of new multi-family units are affordable at this income.”

http://cityobservatory.org/urban-myt...me-households/