"Affordable housing" promise becomes even more of a joke

From the Daily News:

The final version of a state plan for developer Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project weakened guarantees that promised affordable housing would get necessary funding, new documents show.

Ratner has pledged to build 2,250 units of affordable housing as part of the proposed Nets arena and 16-tower project, but critics have questioned whether he'll ever come through.

A draft of the plan, obtained under the Freedom of Information Law by the blog Atlantic Yards Report, promises state and city affordable housing subsidies to fund those units.

"City actions include approval of funding . . . for affordable housing bond financing," an April 2006 draft of the General Project Plan states. "The State would also . . . provide funding for affordable housing bond financing."

Those paragraphs were deleted in later drafts. The current plan says the affordable housing is "expected" to be paid for with tax-exempt bonds from city and state housing programs.