The AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust announced a partnership with several other parties to invest up to $300 million in affordable housing, community centers and care facilities on metropolitan New York sites.
Also involved are the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, the New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO and a coalition of unions, area churches and developers known as the United Clergy Task Force.
The seven projects earmarked for development in the first phase of the partnership are in New York City's Bronx and Brooklyn boroughs, and Jersey City, N.J. The partnership will employ union labor and the projects could create an estimated 1,500 union construction jobs.
"There is no more compelling issue facing our cities today than to provide housing particularly for the neediest people," said Richard Ravitch, chairman of the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust and former New York lieutenant governor.
The partnership, which uses union and public pension funds to finance development on the property owned by the religious organizations, aims to address the shortage of affordable housing in the city and offer other benefits in underserved communities. In the last 10 years, 400,000 rental units with rents less than $1,000 per month disappeared from the housing market in New York City, while median apartment rents increased 75% since 2000.
"You can't build affordable housing without the key components: labor, community, and what we are showing today, clergy," said New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer.
