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A luxury high-rise apartment block that will separate rich and poor tenants is being proposed for the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
The 33-story building will stretch 10 blocks and include 55 low-income homes that will be orientated towards the back of the building, while the luxury homes will have a view of the Hudson River.
The building will be designed so that the affordable units will be completely seprate from the luxury section, with its own entrance and elevator.
Blog site, West Side Rag, wrote, “You know that show Downton Abbey - where the servants have to come and go through separate entrances and bow their heads when they see a noble? Well, there could soon be a version of Downton Abbey right here, on the Upper West Side!”
To be eligible for one of the subsidised rental units, applicants need to make less than 60 per cent of the median income of US$51,450. Renters will be chosen through a lottery system.
The rental units, which will only be on the second to sixth floors, will cost US$845 for a studio, US$908 for a one-bed apartment, and US$1,099 for a two-bed apartment each month.
In comparison, the luxury seven-bedroom homes over three levels will sell for US$15.9 million.
“This ‘separate but equal’ arrangement is abominable and has no place in the 21st century, let alone on the Upper West Side,” New York State Assembly member Linda Rosenthal told West Side Rag.
“A mandatory affordable housing plan is not licensed to segregate lower income tenants from those who are well off.
“The developer must follow the spirit as well the letter of the law when building affordable housing, and this plan is clearly not what was intended by the community.”
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