3. Create affordable housing that meets the community’s needs

In 2005, Atlantic Yards developers promised to provide 2,250 affordable apartments to address the shortage of housing in northwest Brooklyn, and to create an opportunity for tenants facing pressure from rising housing costs to remain here.

Over the next sixteen years, that promise has been chipped away until nothing other than pieces remain. During the long wait for apartments to be completed, tens of thousands of families have been displaced from neighborhoods surrounding Atlantic Yards. Most of the “affordable” housing that has been built–and all of the new units that are about to become available–are intended for households earning more than $100,000 per year. And since 2016, residents of the community districts next to the project have not even received preference in lotteries for its affordable housing.

This is not what Brooklyn was promised, and we shouldn’t be asked to accept it when now more than ever, our communities’ historic social and economic diversity is in danger of disappearing.

  • The remaining project affordable housing to be constructed must be leased to tenants earning no more than an average of 60% AMI, with a minimum of 40% of such housing being affordable to tenants earning an average of 40% AMI. Affordability must be permanent. The affordable housing unit mix must meet community needs for the targeted and lowered AMI levels and minimally adhere to New York City's requirements under its Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program.
  • The City must allow persons displaced from community districts 2, 3, 6, and 8 after 2006 to receive community preference in lotteries for affordable housing at Atlantic Yards.
  • At least 25% of affordable housing to be constructed must be allocated with preference to senior citizens.
  • At least 25% of affordable housing to be constructed must be allocated with preference to the homeless.