Have a low income and want to stay in Crown Heights? Enter this housing lottery by May 13, 2015

Brownstoner ran a blurb on this today. They have a better photo that the one posted above: http://www.brownstoner.com/blog/2015/04/affordable-rentals-up-for-grabs-at-crown-heights-landmark/#comments

@crownheightster - can you show me where you saw that they bought it for $52k?

"The next owner was Sue Simmonds. She said that she saw the house from the B65 bus, and it spoke to her, asking for help. She bought it in 1995 for $175,000. It had long ago been chopped up into apartments, with six rent stabilized units, plus the owner’s apartment. It was Ms. Simmonds who initiated the landmarking of the house. Unfortunately, her good intentions backfired.

She had barely taken title when tenants starting reporting her for lack of repairs, and the city came down on her for over 150 code violations that all were on the books when she bought the house. Some of the units were deemed illegal, but also had violations, leaving her in the catch-22 situation of being jailed for not fixing up units that were illegal in the first place. The city wanted to put her in jail, and the tenants all believed she was trying to get rid of them. It was a mess.

Ms. Simmonds lost the building. It was purchased in 2013 for a little more than $52,000 by a nonprofit named Neighborhood Restore."

I suspect that the city had effectively two prices for the home:
Price 1. For entities who would turn it into market rate apartments.

Price 2. For entities who could show they have the track record to bring it up to code AND then rent it out to low income tenants.

...presumably, Neighborhood Restore was the highest bidder in category 2.

Here's a description of what they do: http://www.neighborhoodrestore.com/index_nr.html

It sounds as if they are returning all 7 of the units in the building to go toward the city's affordable housing goals.

Photo and update: http://www.brownstoner.com/blog/2015/07/checking-on-affordable-housing-at-96-brooklyn-avenue/

The DOB has yet to record a new certificate of occupancy and get rid of all of the old violations, which I believe means they can't move in yet.

As a result of the number of affordable units it will contain, this building isn't especially profitable to build and developers often take their time in such situations.