Comptroller Pulls Through With $300M Affordable Housing Push
Last spring, New York City Comptroller Mark Levine’s unveiled plans to use the city’s public pension funds to invest $4 billion over the next four years in affordable housing development. Levine is making the first allocation in that plan.
The municipal pension funds are investing $300 million into the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust, Gothamist reported. The trust has helped to build more than 44,000 units in the city in the last four decades and has another 10,000 units in the financing pipeline, including an unnamed Brooklyn co-op development.
“This is a dramatic increase in the pace of investment because the crisis is worse than it’s ever been,” Levine said.
Prominent investments by the trust have included the 330-unit Ellery on West 43rd Street and the 858-unit Brooklyn Crossing near the Barclays Center. The trust, which requires the use of union labor, typically invests in projects that include mixed-income levels.
Since 2002, the city’s pension funds have deployed more than $500 million to the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust.
The pension fund push into affordable housing, disclosed in April, is set to more than double the real estate portfolio of the five funds, which provide retirement benefits to city employees.
Investments could go towards affordable development or rehabilitation across the city, potentially encompassing thousands of units. Eligible projects may include mixed-income developments, office-to-residential conversions, renovations and middle-income apartment developments constructed by unions.
The investments will need approval from each pension fund’s board of trustees.
Speaking at an event for the New York State Association for Affordable Housing in March, Levine said he was sure there were “projects that we should be learning about, where we can find that win-win and get a decent risk adjusted return for our pension fund and give you financing that you might otherwise not get access to.”
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