News, Feds urged to reject plan to sell troubled Chinatown building for low-income seniors : detailed suggestions and opinions about Feds urged to reject plan to sell troubled Chinatown building for low-income seniors .
For decades, living conditions at Cathay Manor Apartments have deteriorated as its elderly, low-income residents have grown more isolated amid the rising rents and gentrification of booming Chinatown.
Dingy hallways and run-down communal spaces lead to modest apartments, many of which haven’t been updated in years. Clogged vents blow tepid, foul-smelling air. Malfunctioning elevators have repeatedly gone unfixed for days on end, leaving many of the vulnerable, mostly Chinese American residents marooned on their floors.
The 38-year-old complex on a busy stretch of North Broadway is a far cry from the gleaming luxury towers that have gone up across the neighborhood since the turn of the century. Yet its owners see it as a potential moneymaker.
They hope to sell the federally subsidized housing complex for about $108 million, a high valuation for the area based in part on a massive rent increase that would need to first be approved by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
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