Brooklyn, NY – Reverend Calvin Butts Is Catching Heat For His Support For Starrett City Bid

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    Brooklyn,NY – Affordable housing advocates gathered at City Hall Wednesday, calling on the federal government to reject the latest $1.3 billion proposal by Clipper Equities to purchase Starrett City in Brooklyn, the country’s largest federally subsidized housing complex.

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    “We are about to lose in one fell swoop over 40,000 affordable units,” said Bertha Lewis of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. “Where are working families to stay?”

    Now the housing debate is getting a little bit personal, as affordable housing advocates are going after an influential minister, Harlem Reverend Calvin Butts who’s supportive of Clipper Equities bid.

    Butts denies a formal deal with the company, but says he is in discussions with them.

    “We believe that the plan that we have will work and we are willing to discuss it with elected officials and the proper authorities, because we think it is a plan — and perhaps the only plan that might maintain affordable housing at Starrett City,” said Butts. City Councilman Charles Barron said “I am totally disappointed in Reverend Butts. [NY1]

    U/D 5/3/07 12:15 AM
    David Bistricer is now bargaining with the current owner over a lower sale price and devising a plan that he hopes will pass muster with government officials, local politicians and the 14,000 tenants at the vast Brooklyn housing complex.

    If Mr. Bistricer has any chance of success, it now seems critical that he renegotiate his deal with the current owner, Starrett City Associates. Senator Charles E. Schumer and state officials have indicated that a deal is not feasible at $1.3 billion, asserting that such a heady price would force the new owners to increase rents sharply or cut services at the ethnically and economically diverse complex. [NY Times]


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