In 2003 Settlement Housing Fund signed a development agreement with the New York City Housing Authority to build 37 new two family homes, replacing a damaged building that was part of the Prospect Plaza project in the Ocean Hill/Brownsville section of Brooklyn. We obtained financing from the Authority, from the City's capital budget from the Affordable Housing Program of the Federal Home Loan Bank, construction loans from WAMU and end loans from WAMU, Chase and other lenders. Capsys, the pre-fab company owned by Monadnock, built the homes in their Navy Yard factory, and transported them on trucks to the site. Our architects, Edelman Sultan Knox and Wood, tweaked the design and the result was beautiful. Each house had an owner's three bedroom duplex with a garden plus a two bedroom rental unit. The subsidy package was designed for different income levels ranging from under $30,000 to about $90,000. We underwrote the loans and subsidies to assure affordability. Thirty-two of the thirty-seven homes were sold to former residents of public housing. The new owners, in turn, often found section 8 subsidies for their rental units. This complex, though never replicated, could be a model for future Housing Authority co-ventures.

