A new apartment building in Brooklyn is providing affordable housing for residents and winning points for saving energy in the process. NY1’s Roger Clark filed the following report. Veronica Caveness is happy to be in her new Bedford Stuyvesant apartment where she, her granddaughter and her two children have more room than they used to. "I used to live in a one-bedroom in the Bronx, paying $962, to come here to pay $770 for a three bedroom is so beautiful,” said Caveness.
Caveness is one of the new residents of the Myrtle Avenue Apartments, a six story 33-unit building constructed on a formerly vacant lot in a neighborhood where affordable housing is at a premium. Families living there must have a combined income below $41,000, and 11 of the units are for formerly homeless people with a disability.
Community leaders and elected officials held a ribbon cutting ceremony for the building Tuesday. The construction was a team effort between the Dunn Development Corporation, a private developer, and the Northeast Brooklyn Housing Development Corporation, a non-profit community-based organization, with the help of public and private funding.
There was a lottery process for potential renters. "The lottery lasted for about eight weeks. In this case we saw 6,000 applications for 33 units of housing,” said NEBHD Corp. CEO Jeffery Dunston.
The apartments are not only affordable for low-income residents, but also energy-efficient. It's just the second multi-family building in the country to earn the "Energy Star" label, which means it achieves optimum energy performance. The building earned the label through the use of Energy Star-certified appliances, special windows and insulation.
The state's commissioner of housing and community renewal says this is just the type of affordable housing they like to see. "We're trying to work on energy efficiency, partnerships between non-profits and for-profit developers, housing for persons with special needs. To have it all in one building is really extraordinary,” said State Housing Commissioner Deborah Van Amerongen.
So far, the residents seem to agree. "In 21 years I live in New York, this is the best apartment I've had in my life, and I am glad for that,” said resident Maribel Galarza. A lot of people are glad for her.
Source: ny1.com