Manhattan BP Identifies UWS Site Where New Affordable Housing Could Go

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — The topic of new housing has dominated recent discourse throughout the city, and Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine just released a report that identified sites across the borough where new residential properties could be built — including on the Upper West Side.

The sites range from small vacant looks, to underutilizes garages, to former manufacturing areas.

In total, Levine identified 171 sites where new housing could be built, and began the discussion on how those construction plans could become a reality.

"We are simply not building enough housing," Levine wrote in an Introduction to his Housing Report. "And that means that in the furious competition for the few apartments that are available, the wealthy are winning out. Everyone else is getting left behind.

"It is urgent that we reverse this trend. Manhattan needs to dramatically increase the pace at which we create new housing, especially affordable housing," he added.

Among those 171 sites, he identified just one on the Upper West Side where new affordable housing could be built.

The site is a parking garage at 103 W. 108th St., between Amsterdam and Columbus.

Its current owner is the Housing Preservation Department, and Levine projects that 80 units of 100 percent affordable housing could be built on the block.

The parking garage actually sits on a block that's recently seen new housing get built.

The West Side Federation for Senior and Supportive Housing, which holds nearly 200 units of affordable housing, opened its doors on the same block in November of 2021.

The popular Booker T. Washington School is also on the same Upper West Side street.

"The production of affordable housing has failed to keep pace with population growth in Community District 7(Upper West Side)," Levine wrote in his report.

Since 2014, a total of 660 affordable units have been create in the district, but lags behind most other areas of the borough.

The report outlines what Levine's calls a housing "vision," which would only be made possible through action from a wide variety of community board, elected officials, city agencies, and property owners.

There is no specific timeline.