Bloomberg: “Nobody’s sleeping on the streets” in New York City

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 14:03:00 +0000

When asked Tuesday about allegations that the New York City shelter system is turning families away despite dangerously cold temperatures, Mayor Michael Bloomberg replied, defiantly: "Nobody's sleeping on the streets."

The mayor's flippant comment has outraged homeless advocates. (And everyone with commonsense.)

By the city's own admission, there were 3,200 people sleeping on the streets in January 2012, but advocates suggest that there is no 100 percent accurate measurement of the city's unsheltered homeless and that the number is actually significantly higher.

And if you need further proof that families are sleeping on the street, New Yorkers say, then just look around.

"If you ride the subway, you know people are living on the street," one man told NY1. "And people are living underneath the subway," he added.

Meet NYC’s first-ever “microapartments”

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 20:32:00 +0000

Last summer, Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled a plan to build the city's first "microapartment" building: 55 rental units, all ranging between 250- to 370-square-feet, a size that was, until recently, illegal under current building code. Bloomberg held an open call for proposals for the fun-sized dwellings, and announced the winning design Tuesday morning.

A project called My Micro NY from a design team comprised of Monadnock Development, Actors Fund Housing Development Corp. and nArchitects beat out 33 other proposals to win the competition.

Construction at 335 East 27th Street will start by the end of this year, with move-ins slated for September 2015. In addition to being downright tiny, the building will be the first multi-family building in Manhattan to use prefab construction. The shipping container-esque prefab modules, which will be manufactured by Capsys at its Brooklyn Navy Yard factory, will snap together to form the building.

Salon.com > affordable housing

Bloomberg: “Nobody’s sleeping on the streets” in New York City

Meet NYC’s first-ever “microapartments”