Affordable Housing

Affordable housing information is currently managed through dozens of federal, state and city agencies each of which have their own affordable housing stock and programs. And getting into affordable housing in New York City often requires people to identify affordable housing projects, inquire into waiting lists, request individual applications, submit individual applications, then wait and wonder whether they will win the affordable housing lottery. In the new customer service oriented government proposed in the earlier Government 2.0 section, we should create a centralized affordable housing vacancy database and location aware website, so that New Yorkers can easily find affordable housing based on locations and criteria, qualify for and apply online through one application with check offs for the projects that they are interested in. Access to this website would also be made available at any of the participating agency locations through public terminals and the waiting lists would be public information, which would help stop abuses where people have skipped ahead of others. While affordable housing is currently scarce, making it easier to find options and apply would help the crisis immensely and alleviate stress for numerous New Yorkers.

The 421-a tax break costs our City budget almost half a billion dollars a year just to subsidize luxury development. An analysis by the Pratt Center for Community Development analyzed over fifty condos slated to receive the 421-a tax credit and found that of the over 6,100 units created, not one was affordable with a price lower than $350,000, with most priced above $600,000 and some exceeding $2 million, for lifetime costs exceeding another half billion dollars. We should adopt the reforms to 421-a proposed by “Housing Here and Now” and its coalition of hundreds of community and advocacy groups by defining affordable housing in the context of the neighborhood, creating permanently affordable units on-site, with the requirement that all workers be paid prevailing wage. We should also consider transitioning from a geographic exclusion zone that requires an affordable housing component to a more organic community related index that would trigger affordable housing for any luxury construction.

The Pratt Center for Community Development and Chhaya Community Development Corporation estimate that between 1990 and 2000 New York City gained 114,000 housing units that are not reflected in the number of certificates of occupancy that were granted for new construction or renovation. These units are often unsafe, existing in private homes converted into rooming houses, unauthorized basement apartments, or commercial lofts rented as residences. In the report researchers admit that illegal units are hard to track with landlords unwilling to reveal them for fear of fines and tenants not daring to report unsafe conditions for fear of evictions or worse. While unsafe living conditions for immigrants in New York are as old as the City itself, we should not need the talent of Jacob Riis and a modern “How the Other Half Lives” to usher in reforms. With the 2010 census coming up it is also imperative that we get these units counted so that local residents are provided with the valuable resources they need.

We can follow the lead of Massachusetts, California and seven other states that have adopted an “accessory dwelling unit” (ADU) to provide necessary safety regulation. Tenants would gain safe conditions, regulatory protection and a rent regulated unit; existing landlords would be provided with amnesty and a grace period; both existing and new landlords would be encouraged to build new or improve old units through financial and technical assistance; and the City would gain hundreds of thousands of affordable housing units along with assurance of a more accurate census count.