VOLUME 6, NUMBER 10 FEBRUARY 12, 2014
THE WEST SIDE’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER SERVING CHELSEA, HUDSON YARDS & HELL'S KITCHEN
Hudsonview Terrace Tenants Paying the Price for Broken Promises BY SAM SPOKONY Low-income tenants at a Hell’s Kitchen building say the landlord is forcing them to pay unfair rents that are higher than what they agreed to under a city-subsidized housing program. Dozens of those residents at Hudsonview Terrace — a 38-story, 396-unit tower at 747 10th Avenue, between West 50th and 51st Streets — entered the Section 8 enhanced voucher program after their formerly Mitchell-Lama building was bought out by a private owner, Empire State Management, in 2003. At that time, the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and the landlord reportedly granted those tenants what they thought would be a good deal — keeping them in the building, even as a large number of market rate tenants moved in alongside them. “In 2003, we were told [by both the city and the landlord] that our rent would be 30 percent of our annual income,” said Kelly Ann Junior, one of Hudsonview’s Section 8 tenants. But Junior says that she’s now paying more than 50 percent of her annual income for her one-bedroom apartment, after HPD approved Empire’s numerous rent increases. Other Hudsonview tenants — some of them seniors living off Social Security checks — are suffering similar or worse
financial burdens, according to a lawsuit filed this past year in State Supreme Court by the Section 8 tenants against both Empire and HPD. One senior, who lives in a one-bedroom that now rents for just over $2,300 per month, said in the suit that she’s been ordered to pay 60 percent of her income. Another elderly resident said the rent on her two-bedroom apartment has, since 2011, been $3,300 per month, of which she is forced to pay nearly $1,350 per month — adding up to around 53 percent of her annual reported Social Security Disability income. Some market rate tenants at Hudsonview now allegedly pay rents that are actually lower than those of voucher tenants — with the suit claiming that the landlord is doing so in order to use the additional city subsidies to pad its own pockets. Aside from pulling away money from HPD’s already cash-strapped Section 8 program, that difference would violate another agreement from the 2003 Mitchell-Lama buyout, namely that rents charged to voucher tenants should not exceed those of their market rate counterparts. As evidence, the suit claims that in 2011, a market-rate tenant in a two-bedroom apartment was granted a major con-
Continued on page 5
TALKING POINT, LETTERS PAGE 8
OTHELLO: THE PANTHER PAGE 14
Photo by David Wilkinson, courtesy of Friends of the High Line
Snow Problem At All: Volunteers Dig The High Line As a certain Staten Island-based groundhog with an annoying gift for prognostication continues to mock us, a group of volunteers are pitching in — by digging the High Line out. See page 2 for info on how to make the elevated park safe for strolling, after the next big storm (and the one after that, and the one after that).
CB4 Sees Presentation, Hears Frustrations BY EILEEN STUKANE Undeterred by snow, slush, ice and a last-minute change of venue, roughly 100 residents of Community Board 4 (CB4) braved the weather to voice various quality of life concerns — when CB4 held its monthly full board meeting on Wednesday, February 5 (at the Hudson Guild on West 26th Street). While storm winds blew outside, a conflict was brewing inside — over a new farmer’s market and a contentious liquor license application. First, though, the board discussed a special permit (later approved) for Crunch Gym to replace the David Barton gym in the old McBurney YMCA building
on West 23rd Street (near Seventh Avenue). Then, a presentation was given by representatives of Brookfield Properties’ Manhattan West development. Located near Hudson Yards, Manhattan West (on Ninth Avenue, from West 31st to 33rd Streets) is a massive, 5.4 million squarefoot office, residential and hotel development of five buildings. Two 60-story North and South glass towers are to be separated by an outdoor landscaped plaza. Brookfield has applied to the NYC Department of City Planning for what’s called a “text amendment” to change the zoning for the plaza, allowing it to expand from 1.3 to 2.02 acres over Dyer Avenue and
5 15 CANAL ST., U N IT 1C • MAN H ATTAN , N Y 10 013 • COPYRIG HT © 2014 N YC COM M U N ITY M ED IA , LLC
the rail yards. The application did not require a public hearing, but CB4 requested that Brookfield show the community its plans. Presenting on behalf of Brookfield, Keith O'Connor noted that a platform would be built over the full width of Dyer Avenue from West 31st to 33rd Streets, and that the streets would be connected by an open pedestrian walkway. Slides were projected of an Entry Plaza, Central Plaza, Event Space, Pavilion and Art Plaza on the proposed expanded public space. CB4 was invited to have a representative join the Brookfield team that manages the Event Space.
Continued on page 3