NYC eyes dilapidated apartment buildings for homeless housing

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NYC to spent at least $41 million on poorly-maintained buildings

The city plans to purchase 14 run-down buildings in Upper Manhattan and the Bronx already used as emergency “cluster-site” housing for the homeless, and covert those properties into permanent affordable housing, the Daily News reports.

The preliminary deal was announced in November—the second part of the city’s effort to phase out cluster sites—but city officials have been tight lipped on the details. Property records show that the transaction could cost the city at least $41 million for the buildings, but a Daily News investigation found tenants living in “squalor” with caved-in ceilings, no heat, and roach infestations. The owner of the buildings, Mark Irgang, declined a request for comment from the newspaper.

In March, a similar deal came under heavy fire from elected officials and housing advocates when the city agreed to buy 468 cluster apartments in 17 buildings owned by infamous developers Stuart and Jay Podolsky for $173 million—well above the independently-appraised value of $143.1 million for the Bronx and Brooklyn properties.

And in other news...

• The city paid $3 million for a consultant’s report on how to overhaul the embattled public housing authority, but the city already shelled out $10 million to a consultant in 2012 to produce a similar document.
• The Straphangers Campaign reflected on a decade in transit and rounded up the best and worst moment for transportation over the last ten years. Spoiler alert: they were not thrilled with fare increases riders experienced throughout the 2010s.
• Billionaires’ Row is the most expensive street in the world, according to a new study.
• Is there a growing cultural chasm between Staten Island and rest of the city?
• And, finally, it appears the MTA isn’t doing so hot in its war on train graffiti: