Two New Affordable Housing Towers Offer a Side of Climate Resilience in Queens

The western Queens waterfront will become home to two new residential towers adjacent to  Hunters Point South Park. The once-industrial 11-acre parkscape "serves as an ecologically resilient buffer against future storm surges, and will eventually help protect the 11 new buildings that, when finished, will fill out the southernmost point of Long Island City," Sydney Franklin reports. 

According to Franklin, the towers contain the highest number of affordable housing units built in a single development since the 1970s with 719 of the 1,194 rental units dedicated to affordable housing. 

"Half of the affordable units in the two towers are reserved for local members of Community Board 2 in Queens, which includes Sunnyside, Woodside and Long Island City. There will also be 100 affordable apartments set aside for low-income seniors, as well as a 572-seat school, a 7,700-square-foot community facility, and 8,900 square feet of street-level retail," writes Franklin. 

The burgeoning Hunters Point South will eventually grow to actualize an initiative born out of Bloomberg's tenure to build more than 5,000 rental units, of which 60% qualify as affordable housing units.  

Franklin says that "[h]alf of the affordable units in the two towers are reserved for local members of Community Board 2 in Queens." Lisa Deller, chairwoman of the community board, calls the affordable housing additions "a drip in the bucket compared to the need," and urges local renters to apply to live in the buildings.