I ran across this story in the New York Post and was blown away that this stuff is “allowed” to happen in 2014.
Let me back up. A New York development company called Extell plans to build a 33-story luxury condo in the pricey Upper Westside of Manhattan. The building will have 219 units overlooking the waterfront and 55 affordable units in a “building segment” facing the street. No big deal right? Wrong.
The building plans also call fora separate entrance or “poor door” for affordable-housing tenants. GTFOH!
You see Extell applied for the Inclusionary Housing Program which means developers may build larger properties in exchange for providing on- or off-site low-income housing. A spokesman for the Department of Housing Preservation and Development confirmed that the agency had approved Extell’s application.
“Because Extell considers the affordable segment to be legally separate from the rest of the building, it says it is required to have different entrances,” Think Progress explains. Plus, it will spare all the residents from the terrible awkwardness of regularly encountering people whose lifestyles differ from theirs, or something.
