Rebirth for a Decaying Housing Project
June 30, 2006
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By KAREN O'SHEA
STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE
Markham Gardens Houses in West Brighton is boarded up today -- the last family was displaced in April -- but yesterday city officials unveiled a $60 million plan to remake the aging public housing development over the next two years with new affordable brick-front row houses with gabled dormers, backyards and antique-style lightposts similar to the originals.
At a press conference at the site on Richmond Terrace, city officials named the builders selected to tear down and rebuild a development that was created during World War II as temporary housing for shipyard workers.
A total of 290 new housing units, including 240 apartments, 25 two-family houses and a recreation center, will replace the existing deteriorating 360 units of public housing. Work will begin this winter.
But despite a promise from the Housing Authority that all Markham tenants would be eligible to return, some former residents who attended the event yesterday were unsure if they could or would be able to live in the new Markham, which will include less than half its original number of public housing units, but more housing for low- and moderate-income families who might not otherwise be eligible for public housing.
"I don't think too many people will come back," said Sylvia Cunningham, president of the Markham Tenants Association, who lived in the development for 30 years. She likes the new plan but is unsure if she will meet the new income requirements to return.
The New York City Housing Authority will set aside 150 of the new apartments for people who use federally subsidized Section 8 housing vouchers. Former Markham residents will be given first crack at those units.
But Ms. Cunningham's income is too high for Section 8 vouchers -- and too low for the other new Markham apartments, which will be targeted to middle-income renters with annual earnings ranging from $42,350 to $85,080 for a family of four.
She was relocated last year to the Todt Hill Houses, another public housing development, where she pays 30 percent of her income for rent.
Twenty-five new homes at Markham will be priced for moderate buyers, and Tino Hernandez, chairman of the New York City Housing Authority, said he hoped some public housing tenants would be able to purchase homes.
"We need to see NYCHA residents move up the ladder and buy new houses," he said yesterday.
The city selected a partnership team headed by the Arker Companies, which will work with Neighborhood Housing Services of Staten Island and Domain Companies to build the new housing. The city Housing Development Corp. will provide a mix of tax-exempt bonds and housing tax credits to finance the project.
The Sisters of Charity Housing Development Corp. is expected to file an application next spring with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to build 80 apartments for low-income seniors on the Markham Gardens grounds.
Shaun Donovan, head of the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development, said his agency is partnering with the federal Housing Authority to create a total of 5,000 mixed-income affordable housing units at Housing Authority developments around the city. Another 100-unit building is planned for the Stapleton Houses.
Last year, the mayor launched an ambitious plan to create or rehabilitate 165,000 units of affordable housing in the city over the next decade, but it's unclear how many of those units will come to Staten Island.
Even the new Markham Gardens development does not increase the overall number of affordable housing units.
The Rev. Terry Troia and other community leaders expressed concern last year that the original plan actually reduced the number of public housing units, but Rev. Troia said she was pleased when the city promised to make up the difference with the 80 units of low-income housing for seniors at Markham and another 130 units of subsidized housing off site, possibly at the old Staten Island Hospital property in Tompkinsville.
"It's going to look different in the sense that it will be new housing and smaller in terms of number of units," she said of Markham. "But there is a commitment to make whole what was lost."
June 30, 2006
Download PDF
By KAREN O'SHEA
STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE
Markham Gardens Houses in West Brighton is boarded up today -- the last family was displaced in April -- but yesterday city officials unveiled a $60 million plan to remake the aging public housing development over the next two years with new affordable brick-front row houses with gabled dormers, backyards and antique-style lightposts similar to the originals.
At a press conference at the site on Richmond Terrace, city officials named the builders selected to tear down and rebuild a development that was created during World War II as temporary housing for shipyard workers.
A total of 290 new housing units, including 240 apartments, 25 two-family houses and a recreation center, will replace the existing deteriorating 360 units of public housing. Work will begin this winter.
But despite a promise from the Housing Authority that all Markham tenants would be eligible to return, some former residents who attended the event yesterday were unsure if they could or would be able to live in the new Markham, which will include less than half its original number of public housing units, but more housing for low- and moderate-income families who might not otherwise be eligible for public housing.
"I don't think too many people will come back," said Sylvia Cunningham, president of the Markham Tenants Association, who lived in the development for 30 years. She likes the new plan but is unsure if she will meet the new income requirements to return.
The New York City Housing Authority will set aside 150 of the new apartments for people who use federally subsidized Section 8 housing vouchers. Former Markham residents will be given first crack at those units.
But Ms. Cunningham's income is too high for Section 8 vouchers -- and too low for the other new Markham apartments, which will be targeted to middle-income renters with annual earnings ranging from $42,350 to $85,080 for a family of four.
She was relocated last year to the Todt Hill Houses, another public housing development, where she pays 30 percent of her income for rent.
Twenty-five new homes at Markham will be priced for moderate buyers, and Tino Hernandez, chairman of the New York City Housing Authority, said he hoped some public housing tenants would be able to purchase homes.
"We need to see NYCHA residents move up the ladder and buy new houses," he said yesterday.
The city selected a partnership team headed by the Arker Companies, which will work with Neighborhood Housing Services of Staten Island and Domain Companies to build the new housing. The city Housing Development Corp. will provide a mix of tax-exempt bonds and housing tax credits to finance the project.
The Sisters of Charity Housing Development Corp. is expected to file an application next spring with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to build 80 apartments for low-income seniors on the Markham Gardens grounds.
Shaun Donovan, head of the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development, said his agency is partnering with the federal Housing Authority to create a total of 5,000 mixed-income affordable housing units at Housing Authority developments around the city. Another 100-unit building is planned for the Stapleton Houses.
Last year, the mayor launched an ambitious plan to create or rehabilitate 165,000 units of affordable housing in the city over the next decade, but it's unclear how many of those units will come to Staten Island.
Even the new Markham Gardens development does not increase the overall number of affordable housing units.
The Rev. Terry Troia and other community leaders expressed concern last year that the original plan actually reduced the number of public housing units, but Rev. Troia said she was pleased when the city promised to make up the difference with the 80 units of low-income housing for seniors at Markham and another 130 units of subsidized housing off site, possibly at the old Staten Island Hospital property in Tompkinsville.
"It's going to look different in the sense that it will be new housing and smaller in terms of number of units," she said of Markham. "But there is a commitment to make whole what was lost."