Underused NYPD parking lot in Lower Manhattan to be turned into affordable housing. Here's more on NYC's plan.

An NYPD parking lot in the East Village in Lower Manhattan will soon transform into more affordable housing.

The city announced Monday its plans for The Aurea, a mixed-use development with approximately 131 affordable homes, a senior center, community space and replacement parking facilities.

What we know about the project

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said a team of nonprofit organizations, including Housing Works, which works to end homelessness in the city, among other things, will develop the site at 324 E. 5th St., and that 30% of the homes built there will be reserved for formerly homeless New Yorkers.

"This project will provide permanently affordable housing, create homes for formerly homeless New Yorkers and put community stewardship at its center through a community land trust," Mamdani said on the city's official website. "It's the first City land designation of our administration, and it's exactly the kind of housing we're committed to building across the five boroughs: deeply affordable, community-led and worthy of the greatest city in the world."

The project will also include landscaped terraces, green roofs and all-electric building systems, the city said.

Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal said Manhattan "is facing an unprecedented housing crisis, and 324 E. 5th St., represents the exact kind of project this moment demands," adding "This project is the product of an extensive community engagement process in the East Village, and I'm proud that nearly 400 Manhattanites provided feedback that directly shaped the vision for this site."

Mamdani has made affordable housing a top priority

Back in late May, Mamdani announced a new "block by block" initiative to tackle the city's affordable housing crisis.

The plan focuses on 400,000 affordable housing units, enhancing tenant protections and investing in public housing. Some 200,000 of those units will be new, rent-stabilized homes built over the next decade, as well as preserving and stabilizing an additional 200,000 homes.

Affordable housing has been a top priority for Mamdani, who has previously called it New York City's biggest crisis.

"When New Yorkers can afford a home, they can afford to dream," Mamdani previously said.

He added finding affordable housing is "nearly impossible," calling it the "single largest driver of the affordability crisis."