(DNAINFO)  Maya Rajamani | May 19, 2017 — A pair of long-awaited affordable buildings slated for the West Side could devote 10 percent of its units for the homeless — a possibility local officials say violates a promise the city made to provide dedicated middle-income housing at the site.

When the city rezoned the Western Rail Yards, it agreed to build two affordable housing developments in the neighborhood — one on a vacant lot on 10th Avenue between West 48th and 49th streets, and the other on a current MTA parking lot on Ninth Avenue and the corner of West 54th Street.

The city plans to release a request for proposal (RFP) seeking a developer for the two sites this summer, Zlata Kobzantsev, a planner with the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, told Community Board 4’s Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen Land Use Committee Wednesday evening.

The city promised to reserve units at the two sites for much-needed moderate and middle-income housing in a 2009 “Points of Agreement,” committee member Joe Restuccia said.

So it came as a surprise when a rep for the city recently told the Community Board that ten percent of the approximately 267 units slated to be built between the two sites could be reserved to house the homeless.

Source: City May Siphon Affordable Units for Homeless, Angering Locals – Hell’s Kitchen & Clinton – DNAinfo New York