The White Plains Common Council has voted to allocate additional money from the city’s Affordable Housing Assistance Fund to help support an affordable housing project in the city that has experienced a cost overrun of $2.1 million. The cost overrun affecting the Mt. Hope Plaza project at 65 Lake St. is blamed on increased construction costs due to tariffs and a high interest rate environment. The cost to build Mt. Hope Plaza originally had been projected as $40 million.
In seeking supplemental funding in the amount of $850,000 from the White Plains Affordable Housing Assistance Fund, Rev. Dr. Gregory Robeson Smith, on behalf of the Mt. Hope Community Development Corporation said that Westchester County expressed a willingness to partner collaboratively with White Plains and would contribute the rest of the needed $2.1 million.
“We believe this shared approach best reflects our mutual commitment to problem solving and to ensuring the successful completion and timely occupancy of the Mt. Hope Plaza development,” Smith said. “We are confident that with this additional support the project will remain financially viable and will continue to meet the city’s planning, housing, and community development objectives.”
Mt. Hope Plaza has been under construction since April 2024. The six-story apartment building is being constructed on a parcel adjacent to Mt. Hope A.M.E Zion Church on Lake St.
It will offer 56 apartments for adults ages 62 and older who earn at or below 60% of the Westchester County Area Median Income. There will be 20 units for formerly homeless seniors who also will be able to receive support services through an Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative award administered by the New York State Office of Mental Health. The supportive service provider is Community Housing Innovations, Inc.
State financing for the development includes $18.8 million in Federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits and $8 million in subsidy from New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR). Westchester County originally was providing $2.8 million from its Housing Investment Fund. Mt. Hope A.M.E Zion Church was providing $1 million, and the City of White Plains originally contributed $400,000 from its Affordable Housing Assistance Fund. Additional financing was being provided by Webster Bank. The project’s developers are the Mt. Hope Community Development Corporation and Community Housing Innovations, Inc.
White Plains Mayor Justin Brasch said that when developers build in White Plains they can pay money into the Affordable Housing Assistance Fund instead of providing in their project the full number of apartments the city requires to be priced as affordable housing.
“It’s called a ‘payment in lieu,’” Brasch said. “It all must be used for affordable housing and this is exactly what we have it for so when somebody who is trying to build a sensible and good affordable housing project needs extra money to get over the finish line … we are making sure it gets over the finish line. We are making sure it gets done in conjunction with all of our partners. That is the purpose of this fund and I want everyone to understand what we’re using it for.”
