Luxury Apartment Building Will Have Separate Door For Poor Residents

[phantom power]

A luxury condo building on New York City’s Upper West Side has gotten clearance from the city to have a separate entrance, or a “poor door,” for low-income tenants, according to the New York Post.

Extell, which is building the 33-story complex, will build a specific door for the 55 affordable housing units it’s including in order to be allowed to build a bigger building. The low-income units, which are available to people making 60 percent of median income or less, will also be in a segment that only contains affordable apartments and that faces the street while the luxury apartments will face the river.

In New York City, this arrangement is relatively common. Luxury builders get credits to use up more square footage than they normally could by promising to build affordable units as well. Those developers can then sell the credits to cover the costs of building the low-income housing. 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.

And besides being made to use a separate entrance, some low-income residents in luxury buildings are prohibited from using the amenities offered to the wealthy tenants, which in the case of this particular building include swimming pools and regulation-sized basketball courts. Several buildings in the city ban affordable housing or rent-regulated tenants from using perks like gyms, rooftops, and pools, and the practice is on the rise.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/07/21/3462120/new-york-city-poor-door/

[ann---]

1. Not sure I agree

about the separate entrance for lower-cost apartments, but I think the amenities in an apartment complex are offered at a price. Just like some apartments are "premium" (better cabinets, rugs, etc) in the same building, the tenants pay a higher rent for them.

If tenants are paying a higher rent for amenities - then they should be only for those who are paying for it.

in my view

[Skittles]

5. paying more for more apartment amenities is one thing

separate entrances is entirely another

[ann---]

9. That's exactly

what I said.

[Skittles]

21. correct

sorry, I was agreeing

[yeoman6987]

27. The company should just make them all luxury apartments and forget the low-cost ones

They are not going to look well by having the lower paid renters go in another entrance. Just give up on the idea and make it a luxury apartment. Less headache.

[RoverSuswade]

2. "Sir, this is steerage.

You won't find any of your people down here."

[NBachers]

3. Concierge white-glove red-carpet 911 service for "deserving souls;" the rabble are on their own

[Quantess]

4. What is "low income" in Manhattan?

I would bet it's considered a decent income in other places of the US.

[NutmegYankee]

7. $66,739 is the median income in Manhattan.

60% of that or less is $40k or less a year. Median income in surrounding boroughs is even lower.

[stevenleser]

26. Yes, but that includes the sections north of 100th street and the lower east side which skew the

numbers considerably. That also includes the many folks who live in the large housing projects which have very low income.
Manhattan has 102 public housing developments with 53,570 apartments.

I would bet that the median household income here without projects and below 100th st excluding LES is over 100K

[LordGlenconner]

18. Probably around 400k

[leftyohiolib]

6. separate but equal

what's next separate drinking fountains/ restrooms?

[oldhippie]

19. It's not equal .....

.... nor was it intended to be, so I don't think your phrase fits.

[badtoworse]

8. You get what you pay for

The condo owners' entrance probably has a door man, red carpet, security, marble floors and other amenities. The condo owners pay for that in their monthly fees. Why should low income renters expect to get that if they are not paying for it?

[ann---]

10. If it is that type of building

where those services are provided and reflected in the higher rent, then I could see the separate entrances.

[badtoworse]

11. I believe the high end units are condos that sell for $1 million plus.

[Cresent City Kid]

12. Is the absence of poor people part of the "amenity"?

I'm not understanding what the issue is with every tenant entering the building through the same door.

[badtoworse]

13. Only if you look at it that way. I don't, but apparently you do.

I think the issue has to do with some people paying for the amenities and others getting them for free - that is not fair.

BTW, from what I've read, only the low income housing part of the building is rented. The high end units are condos that sell for over a million dollars.

[Fawke Em]

14. A front door is an amenity? eom

[badtoworse]

16. They likely will have a doorman who get's paid, ...

...marble floors that get polished, carpets that get cleaned and security that gets maintained. Those things cost money.

Beyond that, there is probably no access between the condo units and the rental units. Might as well be a separate building.

[oldhippie]

20. I think legally they are separate buildings ....

Might as well be a separate building.

.... even though they are in the same building. The corp that owns it has certainly set up two different legal entities to own and manage the two different parts. They will have vastly different cost structures and returns. The owners will not want the low income side "contaminating" the stats of the luxury side.

[Cresent City Kid]

22. I understand your point about fairness

If expensive materials and staff create an aesthetic experience and the cost is borne by the owners of the high end condos, I guess this cost would be unfair if the experience was open to everyone. But when you break it down to one individual act of an unauthorized person walking into the door, what is lost? The beauty of the marble is not reduced, the doorman is going to be there anyway. The pleasant experience of entering the building is not reduced in any way, it's not some finite commodity.

[badtoworse]

24. The cost difference is not insignificant

There are 200 luxury units and 55 low income units. If all 255 units can use the amenities and only 200 are paying the cost, then the cost per unit paid by the luxury owners would be 27.5% higher than if all 255 units paid an equal share. To me, 27.5% is not insignificant.

It's probably a moot point. I doubt that it's possible to move between the luxury units and the low income units without leaving the building. As a practical matter (and as I understand it, a legal matter), they are separate buildings.

[kelliekat44]

15. Some developers, in an effort to get all the tax breaks they can and suck at the Fed tit, agree to

house a certain number of low-income families within their units. Usually this is not even noticed or known to all tenants. In the country in which I live in Maryland, low-income families are mainstreamed into all levels of residential dwellings, including condos. Consequently, you will not find blighted communities in this county or what others refer to as ghettos. And since that is the case, educational opportunity is fairly distributed throughout the county. It's a great way to live with others and enjoy a fairly high standard of living. We do have a fair number of new EU and Balkan immigrants who just can't stand being around people who do not look like them and they have managed to build almost gated communities where only conservative whites are welcomed...somehow they get access to political affiliations, i don't know how. I guess it takes all kinds of people.

[LWolf]

17. Next it will be

seats at the front of the bus and public water fountains and rest rooms.

[WinkyDink]

23. Instead of a building number, the door will have a plaque saying "Oliver Twist Entrance."

[stevenleser]

25. This also exists in buildings here between extremely rich and only moderately rich sections.

Sometimes it is not entirely intentional or at least not intentionally based on income. Large Luxury buildings often have two or three entrances, one for each wing of the building and each wing has their own elevator. It helps make getting in and out of your apartment more efficient. Some wings tend to have better or at least more expensive apartments than the other.

As in the OP, apartments that face the river rather than the street would be more expensive and since they are on the same part of the building would tend to have their own entrance in the multiple entrance/elevator situation.

Also, when a building goes condo, it is common to have rental holdouts for many years. The condo associations often put in gyms and pools and things like that and they make those amenities available to apartment owners only. Renters cannot use them.