Updated: December 27, 2023
From New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD):
New Homes for the New Year: HPD Launches Innovative Initiative to Build Affordable Homes in More Neighborhoods
New initiative was created to tackle the decades-long housing and homelessness crisis at a time when State and Federal resources are increasingly scarce.
The brand-new program aims to build new affordable and mixed-income homes using innovative funding solutions techniques.
HPD released RFEI and will evaluate proposals based on their depth of affordability and their location in the city.
New York – Today, the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) announced a brand-new program aiming to build affordable and mixed income homes across New York City: The Mixed Income Market Initiative (MIMI). The program was created to tackle the decades long housing and homelessness crisis at a time when State and Federal resources are increasingly scarce. Understanding the urgency of the crisis, the City is pioneering new ways to build new homes for working families, older adults, children, and all New Yorkers who struggle because there are simply too few homes and nearly no affordable apartments available. Using innovative financing solutions and city capital, MIMI aims to support the construction of new homes across the city.
“New York City is in the midst of a housing and affordability crisis, so we must explore every creative idea to deliver the relief New Yorkers need,” said New York City Mayor Eric Adams. “As someone who grew up on the edge of homelessness, allowing New Yorkers to feel insecure about their housing situation is simply unacceptable. The Mixed Income Market Initiative is an example of how our administration is refusing to accept the status quo, and, instead, is relentless in our efforts to accelerate housing production, cut red tape, and get New Yorkers into safe, quality, and affordable homes.”
“Today, this administration introduces yet another innovative housing finance tool called the Mixed Income Market Initiative (MIMI),” said Deputy Mayor for Housing, Economic Development and Workforce Maria Torres-Springer. “MIMI will surface new models for combining public resources and private financing to produce new homes for working families, seniors, children, and all New Yorkers who are struggling, with a particular focus on neighborhoods with little affordable housing. We look forward to seeing responses to this Request for Expressions of Interest which we hope will maximize affordability and the efficient use of City resources.”
“Any New Yorker who has struggled to find a home or thinks certain neighborhoods are out of reach will be excited about the Mixed Income Market Initiative (MIMI). Today is about building new homes, new opportunities, and new choices for New Yorkers — including areas of the city that are typically not affordable for the average New Yorker,” said HPD Commissioner Adolfo Carrión Jr. “Solving the housing crisis depends on new solutions and I’m proud of our HPD team who embraced the challenge to think outside the box. This bold new initiative goes beyond our limited resources and then steps outside conventional financing models to create affordable housing. My message to the city’s development community: share your most innovative proposals to bring housing that all New Yorkers can afford to every corner of the city and partner with us to take another step toward the City of Yes!”
MIMI facilitates new construction of mixed-income, multi-family rental projects in areas without many low-cost housing options. More specifically, the new initiative provides city subsidies to projects that include homes for a wide range of household incomes – from extremely-low income and homeless set-aside units, to moderate-income and even market rate units. By including market rate units, this new financing model leverages market rate rental units to help finance affordable housing development while increasing housing choice and household mobility in parts of the city where there are fewer low-cost homes available. Additionally, the program aims to more efficiently use cite resources by leveraging higher revenue from market rate units, thus expanding the city’s affordable housing tools while preserving Federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits and other scarce resources for use on other affordable housing projects.
Innovative Financing
In addition to boosting production of new affordable housing throughout the city, the MIMI program aims to use public resources more effectively by combining city subsidy and Article XI property tax exemptions with private financing sources and revenue from market rate units. This mix of financing sources does not rely on other sources of public funding, like the city’s short supply of Federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC). Using city subsidy alongside private financing in mixed-income projects with market rate units enables the city to build affordable housing faster while using LIHTC more strategically to achieve the city’s affordable and fair housing goals.
As part of the city’s fair housing plan, Where We Live NYC, HPD is focused on providing more meaningful choice in the city’s housing market, including neighborhoods where low-cost units are in low supply. By experimenting with new housing models, like MIMI, that cross subsidize public with private funding, the city can create more affordable housing than it can with current resources, while leveraging market rate housing to support affordable housing development everywhere.
Deep & Broad Affordability: The RFEI Proposals and Criteria
Housing developers may apply to participate in the initiative through a Request for Expression of Interest (RFEI) on the HPD website. Projects selected to move forward must be 70 percent affordable and 30 percent market rate.
Proposals may include a wide range of housing options, including homeless-set aside units, supportive housing units, and a mix of income-restricted units at rents between 0% to 120% of the area median income, in addition to the market rate units. One in four of the rent-restricted units must be for extremely low- or very low-income households, inclusive of a 15% set-aside for formerly homeless New Yorkers, and applicants may propose deeper affordability
Preference will be given to proposals with the deepest affordability levels that also efficiently use public resources. The program assumes funding sources for selected projects including discretionary property tax exemptions approved by the New York City Council in addition to city capital. Using these sources, amongst others, HPD is aiming to maximize affordability and the efficient use of resources, none of which will be used to subsidize the market rate units.Read the entire press release from NYC HPD…
All proposals must be submitted by February 15th, 2024 at 4pm.
How do I apply??
Interested participants must submit individual PDF files for each tab and individual files in the forms requested per Section II: RFEI. All PDFs must be searchable. The following information must be clearly printed on the front page of each Submission:
- Project Title
- Respondent Name
- Project Site
- Submission Date
Submissions must be submitted online. Submission instructions will be provided in an addendum that will be issued prior to the Submission due date.
Follow this link for full guidance on HPD’s Request for Expressions of Interest…
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