January 15, 2009
Section: NEWS
Edition: GWP
Page: 7A
Yonkers officials try to restart stalled senior housing project
Ernie Garcia
STAFF
YONKERS - City officials met with state housing representatives yesterday in an attempt to get a stalled housing project on Ashburton Avenue restarted.
Representatives from the Municipal Housing Authority for the City of Yonkers and the Yonkers Department of Planning and Development spoke with staffers of the state Department of Housing and Community Renewal about the Mulford Gardens redevelopment effort and, specifically, a senior housing complex proposed for a vacant lot on Ashburton Avenue across the street from the former Yonkers General Hospital.
The point of the meeting was to improve Yonkers' chances of getting tax credits from the state agency for the senior housing, known as Site A. The credits are sold by developers to investors to finance affordable housing.
"The idea is to do a political show of support and show the changes we've made," said Brian Sweeney, the project manager for the Mulford Gardens redevelopment, speaking to commissioners Tuesday at the housing authority board's monthly meeting.
Site A fell into limbo last year when the city didn't get the tax credits. Last year's proposal envisioned 45 one- and two-bedroom units of senior housing. Since then, the city has proposed eliminating any two-bedroom units.
The Mulford Gardens redevelopment calls for the demolition of the 550-unit public housing complex, now under way, and replacing it with 469 units of mixed-income housing, including the Site A senior housing. The entire Mulford Gardens redevelopment project is behind schedule and some of the proposed units may not be built for years.
James Plastiras, a DHCR spokesman, said Site A did not get the agency's support last year because there was a lot of competition among proposals from other cities and developers, and because there were too many larger units in the Yonkers proposal.
"For the target audience - low-income seniors - two-bedroom apartments are not desirable as opposed to one-bedroom units," said Plastiras.
But the cut in two-bedroom units means that some retirees' desire for bigger apartments will go unmet, said housing authority officials.
"What if you have two sisters who want to live together? You can't get two beds into one room," Roberta Allen, a housing authority commissioner and public housing resident, said of the authority's current senior housing options.
David Simpson, spokesman for Mayor Phil Amicone, said that getting Site A started is important to the city, adding that having a variety of apartment sizes also matters.
"To have a neighborhood feel, you have to have units of different sizes," he said. "That's what the mayor has set out for Ashburton Avenue. Not one type of apartment and one type of income level."
Reach Ernie Garcia at elgarcia@lohud.com or 914-696-8290.
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