Identifying Needs and Exploring Options for Affordable Housing in a Changing Manhattan Neighborhood
"The Capstone team provided the Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation (NMIC) with information to help the organization see the current state of the community and evaluate the feasibility of affordable housing construction in the context of escalating costs and scarce available space. The first phase of the project presented the current state of the areas' demographic and housing situation. This quick snapshot will assist NMIC in the evaluation of its population's needs and will help guide the use of its organizational capacity and resources. The second phase provided an index of financial resources to fund affordable housing development. The Capstone team provided a comprehensive list of financial subsidies on local, state, and federal levels. The database includes financing mechanisms, targeted populations, and the relevant requirements of the administering agencies. The last phase of the project was to conduct a sitesurvey to capture detailed information on the physical attributes of vacant land currently zoned as residential and severely underbuilt properties in the area. NMIC will be able to use the survey to target potential sites of affordable housing development. "