Downtown housing revival shuts out working class

[WNYresident]

Downtown’s housing revival is on a decidedly elite path – and that’s raising concerns that most city residents are effectively shut out of Buffalo’s newest opportunities in urban living.

With rents that routinely range around $1,200 to $2,000 a month, many of the trendy new apartments that are opening up downtown are too pricey for most people who live in one of the nation’s most impoverished cities.


In fact, the only people who can afford those rents are residents who are well-heeled enough to be able to afford a high-priced home in one of the city’s nicer neighborhoods or a trendy suburb. A $1,500 monthly payment is enough to afford a house that sells for somewhere around $180,000 at today’s low mortgage rates. With a $2,000 monthly payment, you can generally swing a home in the $250,000 range, including taxes.

http://buffalonews.com/2016/12/15/da...ime=1481814222

“I’m very concerned about it,” said Rev. Darius Pridgen, the Buffalo Common Council president and the pastor at True Bethel Baptist Church on East Ferry Street. “We’ve got thousands of people – tens of thousands of people – who will never be able to live in downtown Buffalo.”

“The working class folks and the middle-class folks are priced out,” Pridgen said. “That’s the new Buffalo.”

There are ten's of thousands of people who can't afford $90,000 cars or McMansions in Amherst, Clarence or Orchard Park. I don't understand his statement. If you can't afford the apartments you look for a cheaper apartment. You don't have a "right" to live anywhere you can't afford. Correct?

[WNYresident]

“It seems to me that a lot of the affordable living opportunities downtown are being lost,” said Sister Denise A. Roche, the retired president of D’Youville College who now sits on the Erie County Industrial Development Agency board.

How are affordable living opportunities downtown being lost when these building may not have been apartments in the first place?

[WNYresident]

It won’t be easy to bring a more affordable element to the city’s downtown housing revival. One approach the IDA has sometimes taken has been to require one or two units in buildings receiving tax breaks to be more affordably priced, although that also can skew a project’s economics.

I don't think that should be done. People who can't afford to live in one of the new apartments can look for another apartment perhaps in a double close the downtown.

[WNYresident]

“I think we need to reconsider the adaptive reuse policy,” said Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, who has an influential role in shaping the agency’s incentive guidelines.

“I do understand that the numbers have to work,” Pridgen said.

But he also thinks affordable housing needs to be a higher priority.

“We have to talk about affordable housing,” Pridgen said. “If this isn’t a front-burner issue, it will never happen.”

I have an idea.

Affordable housing to some people means subsidized housing. Correct?

I think Mark and Mr. Pridgen should subsidize a few apartments and set an example for others to follow.

[sharky]

Well then Darius and Poloncrap should buy a building, pay to turn it into apartments, and then rent it out for $400 a unit and see how quickly they go bankrupt
Rehabbing these buildings into nice apartments costs money. The developers need to make their money back, plus profit to make it worth while

[leftWNYbecauseofBS]

Rev. Darius Pridgen is a razor bump on the bottom of shaven balls. The guy needs to just shut up and take his hand out of the cookie jar for just a bit.

Just where is it written that poor people are entitled to live everywhere?

[HipKat]

Regardless, an apartment in Downtown Buffalo should not cost the same as an apartment on 80th St in Manhattan.....

[WNYresident]

The people who invested in building the apartments are the ones who make that decision.

[BorderBob]

The people who invested in building the apartments are the ones who make that decision.

Its not always that clean though Res, after all part of that "investment" is likely tax dollars.




b.b.

[leftWNYbecauseofBS]

Its not always that clean though Res, after all part of that "investment" is likely tax dollars.

So?

Tax dollars go everywhere. An example is the $80 million plus that will go towards the AD Price project to build suburban style homes and of better quality than most working folks in the city for people who are lifetime subsidized residents.

Another example is the Loew’s building where two private owners are getting $161,000 in sales and mortgage tax breaks and looking for $750,000 through the Buffalo Building Reuse Program to go along with their $4,000,000 in personal investment. Yes, they will be getting some public money but also putting their own skin in the game at a 4 to 1 ratio. In return for their risk they will make an 11% return, which is less than what they can do in the market with their $4m and return a building that has been vacant for 19 years back to the tax rolls as a full property.

At the end of the day the 'taxpayer' is going to make out in the long run.

The problem with people like you, who while cashing their public paycheck, have with tax breaks is you can't distinguish between those who take risks to improve things and then make a profit and those who simply go along for the ride.

In 20 years the AD Price homes are going to look as run down as the public housing that was built 20 years ago. The neighborhoods did not improve. The tenants with their hand out looking for a break on housing didn't save up to purchase and start contributing. They just ride it out to another preacher can line up perks for his flock in exchange for the tithe on Sunday for 'Jebus' and his Cadillac.


How about you and the rest of your toll booth operators bet against your pension, pool together $4m of your own cheddar and restore a building if the numbers are so good? Ya, that's what I thought. Instead of risking and investing in the region you're going to grab your pension and head out of town the moment the checks start to come.

[sharky]

Regardless, an apartment in Downtown Buffalo should not cost the same as an apartment on 80th St in Manhattan.....

if people are voluntarily willing to pay that much the developers will charge it. if no one rents any of the apartments they'll drop the rates

[Save Us]

There is no affordable housing in Buffalo?? HA!

Just go to the fruit belt, or off Fillmore, plenty of affordable housing there.

Didn't Buffalo have an issue with un accounted for HUD money years ago?

[WNYresident]

Housing Authority to tear down 10 A.D. Price buildings

The A.D. Price housing development was built in 1939, the first public housing project geared specifically for the city’s black community.

But it has been deteriorating and vacant for years. Now the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority has a plan to tear down 10 vacant buildings and spend $20.3 million to replace them with 52 new dwelling units on two parcels on Spring Street and Jefferson Avenue.

http://buffalonews.com/2016/12/15/bm...ime=1481851595



$20,300,000 / 52 = $390,384 per dwelling.

“The proposed AD Price Courts redevelopment will provide quality housing in an area of the city of Buffalo where there is a demonstrated demand for affordable family housing,” Modesto Candelario, vice president of Bridges Development Inc., an affiliate of the BMHA, said in a letter to the Planning Board.

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

[grump]

Regardless, an apartment in Downtown Buffalo should not cost the same as an apartment on 80th St in Manhattan.....

They don't. And Sister Roche should shut the hell up until she's gonna pony up some of her fat TIAA-CREF retirement fund to open some low income housing. What the hell is a nun doing directing policy for ECIDA anyhow. Or doesn't separation of church and state apply to ECIDA? When she ran D'Youville she sucked the public tit at every opportunity. She dumped a bundle on hiring lobbyists to help her.

[leftWNYbecauseofBS]

Regardless, an apartment in Downtown Buffalo should not cost the same as an apartment on 80th St in Manhattan.....

Comparable apartments don't cost the same.

Hint: there is nothing comparable.