Affordable Housing
By: Alex Bustillo, Bernice Boateng, Jeannette Perez, Isary Gutierrez, Crystal
Mordiglia
Issue/Problem/Community Needs
• Financial burden for residents
• Low income families
• Fixed income
• Gentrification
Financial Burden for Residents
• With the cost of living going up and employment wages not
increasing, it has become very difficult for residents to keep their
homes.
• Low income families making between $20,000 and $40,000 a
year spend around 44 percent of their income on rent, when
families spend more than 30 percent of their income for housing,
they are already considered cost burdened. They may even have
difficulty affording necessities such as food, clothing,
transportation, and medical care, according to an article in the
Huffington Post.
• Criteria's to be eligible is a concern for low income residents,
with many families already on the low income category.
• People with disabilities also fall into the low income category.
Fixed Income Residents
• Fixed income residents are the elderly population.
• With the elderly population living on a fixed income, this
makes it difficult for them to afford an apartment in their
local residents.
• Without there being more affordable housing available, it
can lead them to be forced into nursing homes or having a
greater chance of becoming homeless with no where to live.
Gentrification
• For every 100 low-income household, there are only 29 affordable
rental units available.
• Local neighbors and residents are being pushed out of their
community because they can’t afford to live there anymore
• As families grow it is crucial or them to advance and move to a place
with more space, but with minorities not being able to afford rent
where they are currently living, this forces them to move somewhere
else.
• Gentrification causes a huge change in local communities because
residents are forced to leave because of unaffordable living prices.
Rent Regulated Housing
• Rent- regulated housing is the single most important component of
New York City’s housing for low-income workers. More than a
million low-income families, with incomes below the poverty lines
live in rent-regulated housing, compared to a little over half a million
in public and subsidized housing combined.
• Under rent regulation, landlords cannot terminate tenancy without
good cause, even at the end of a lease agreement. They also cannot
increase rents to effectively terminate the tenancy of tenants. Rent
regulation can give tenants a higher sense of security and provides
tenants with greater affordability to ensure them with a place to
live.
Rent Regulated Housing Cont./Vacancy
Decontrol
• Unfortunately, legal provisions threaten to affect housing units
that are vacant. Legal provisions for the deregulation of vacant
units, known as vacancy decontrol, and rising costs of rents in
general are decreasing the effectiveness of rent regulation and
the ability of promoting affordable housing.
Vacancy Decontrol
• Vacancy decontrol is legislation by the New York State legislature
and legislation by the New York City Council, which allows for the
deregulation of apartments when their legal rents reach $2,000 a
month during a vacancy. Because other provisions allow for large
increases during a vacancy, any apartment can be deregulated this
way. This situation has been a large part of the increased rates in
rental units across the state.
Vacancy Decontrol Continued…
• Since 1993 landlords have been able to deregulate rent-stabilized
apartments and some rent controlled apartments upon vacancy. By
applying the “statutory vacancy bonus” rent increase to the previous
stabilized rent and making “individual apartment improvements” to
the vacant apartment, they can raise the legal rent to $2000, at
which point it becomes deregulated.
• For Example: if an apartment renting for the median affordable price
of $910 becomes vacant, the legal rent for a two year lease, will rise
to $1,092 based on the vacancy bonus. The individual apartment
improvements can then add one dollar to the rent for every $40
spent on improvements, so $36,320 worth of improvements will
result in a $2,000 legal rent and a deregulated apartment. And in
these critical times the market is calling for higher and higher rent
increases and can support an asking price of $2000 a month for a
rental unit.
Why is Vacancy Decontrol a
Problem?
• This policy has generated substantial losses in the regulated
housing stock. This represents a rapid shift in a market that is
meant to be stabilized. Vacancy decontrol is impacting the
low-income and all of its surroundings. It has caused the loss
of an estimated 300,000 rent regulated apartments over the
past decade. And a shrinking affordable housing stock which
will lead to record numbers within homelessness.
Target for Change
What Can Help?
• Two policy responses are needed; One to eliminate vacancy
decontrol and one to slow the rent increases on the regulated
housing stock. Repeal vacancy decontrol and reduce allowable
increases on the regulated stock of affordable housing that’s
already out there. Let newer generations be able to join rent
stabilized units at prices that were once more favorable.
• Younger renters are affected greatly, as they were not settled in
before deregulation spread throughout the city, and now deal with
finding residency within units that were once affordable and now no
longer are due to the vacant units that landlords have increased the
monthly rent to unaffordable amounts for young renters.
• Way to attack the crisis would be by penalizing landlords for not
registering apartments and auditing major rent increases without
waiting for complaints from tenants, especially for owners who have
a history of fraud. And most importantly, build it! The most effective
way to create affordable housing would be to build it.
Solve the problem
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Mayor Bill de Blasio’s 10 year plan
$41 billion to preserve and build 200,000 affordable housing units
Implementing mandatory zoning
Increasing the number of homes for the lowest income New Yorkers
Launching a new affordable housing program for middle-income
New Yorkers
Doubling the Department of Housing Preservation and Development
capital funding for affordable housing
Development of small, vacant sites
Rent deregulation and protecting tenants
Expanding affordable and supportive housing for seniors
Offering energy-efficiency in exchange for long-term affordability
Creating new strategies to prevent and reduce homelessness, and
develop additional supportive housing
Organizations
• Few organizations involved with Affordable Housing are:
• Habitat for Humanity New York City builds affordable homes with first-time
home buyers throughout the five boroughs. They also advocate for more
affordable housing in the city and have a housing justice action center on
their site.
• NYC Housing Connect is the city portal for searching and applying for
affordable housing opportunities in New York.
• The Metropolitan Council on Housing is a tenants’ rights membership
organization with the motto, “housing for people, not profit.” They have a
tenants’ rights hotline for questions and a number of housing initiatives to
strengthen tenants’ rights.
Public Opinion
• Consideration of public opinion is important to the housing
development planning process because such opinions not only
influence the funding selected by private and public entities,
but also the approval of necessary zoning permits, building
construction, and overall community acceptance.
• Public housing developers benefit from researching public
opinions prior to moving forward on a project because such
polling helps organizations navigate the preparation and
implementation process of the housing development, thus
reducing opposition and increasing public support.
• Affordable housing development faces many obstacles.
Securing funds, assigning resources, and navigating the
housing market are just some of the complexities that must
be understood and overcome in order to provide those in
need with affordable living. One of the greatest obstacles
can be overcoming negative public perceptions towards
public housing. It is fitting for affordable housing
advocates and developers to obtain public support if they
desire to pursue a project with the least amount of
resistance and delay.
Negative Perceptions of Affordable
Housing
• Generally, opposition to affordable housing as a whole is
referred to as “NIMBY”, which stands for “not in my backyard.”
Individuals and organizations categorized as part of the NIMBY
opposition resist the development of affordable housing in
their community.
• There are many underlying reasons that a person may not
support affordable housing in their neighborhood. Opponents
may engage in a variety of activities to discourage the
development of housing in their area, such as: picketing,
circulating petitions, and contacting their local representative.
• The most common negative public perceptions regarding affordable
housing include: 1) fear of increase in crime 2) fear of decrease in
property value 3) the belief that affordable housing properties are
unattractive and poorly maintained and 4) an ideological view that
affordable housing recipients do not deserve assistance.
• The goal of this study was not to determine conclusively whether
such beliefs are valid, but rather demonstrate the importance of
understanding public opinion and what affordable housing
organizations can do to overcome such beliefs in order promote
affordable housing.
• Public opinion is a dynamic force with numerous influences
and complexities that can make it difficult to predict and
understand. Many factors influence a person’s views of
affordable housing beyond the most common negative
perceptions described previously. A person may support
affordable housing generally, but not understand how
affordable housing is a solution for societal problems today. It
is also common for a person to support the development of
affordable housing as an overall policy, but just not support
development in their community. Another possibility is that
an individual may support the goals of affordable housing, but
have disagreements as to how development should be funded
and what entities should distribute the assistance. Whatever
the reasoning or misconceptions, it is important for affordable
housing advocates to understand the public’s opinion prior to
housing development.
Combating Negative Opinions of
Public Housing
• Having identified the most prevalent negative perceptions of
public housing, we will now address the remedies for
overcoming such potential opposition. Methods for
overcoming opposition to affordable housing can be divided
into three general categories: education and information,
negotiation, and lastly, litigation.40 After having completed
the initial “litmus test” of public opinion, housing organizers
are ready to create an action plan to overcome any negative
perceptions revealed during initial polling.
• Educating the public with the facts of public housing is the
greatest tool in overcoming negative public perceptions.
Providing information dispelling the most common
misconceptions and stereotypes associated with public
housing can be very effective in smothering NIMBY fires.
While some communities require specific knowledge related
to crime rates or property value in order to accept public
housing, the majority of housing opponents simply need
information demonstrating the necessity of affordable housing
in their area.
• Negotiation is another tactic with which developers can
overcome neighborhood opposition to affordable housing. By
welcoming community input, developers are setting the stage
for cooperation rather than a prolonged defensive-offensive
game. A “joint problem-solving approach” that includes the
concerns and desires of the community are often successful in
seeing affordable housing come into fruition. Adaptations in
the size or style of housing being built are changes often
requested among community members.
• In most cases, litigation is used as a last resort. After providing
information and making efforts to negotiate with a community
have failed to dispel opposition, affordable housing advocates
may consider if there are any statutes that would support
their attempt to revitalize a neighborhood. Organizations may
be able to sue if city zoning codes are not being upheld, or if
the refusal to allow the development of affordable housing
violates anti-discriminatory laws.
STRATEGIES AND TACTICS
ADVOCACY PLAN
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COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
EMAIL, PHONE CALLS, LETTERS
TESTIFY AT PUBLIC HEARING
SOCIAL MEDIA
PAMPHLET
NEWSPAPER, RADIO OR TV STATIONS
IMPLEMENTATION
TAKING ACTION
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ATTENDED:
MEETINGS
POSITION STATEMENT /LETTER
INDICATING OUR STAND ON THE ISSUE
ASKING FOR SPECIFIC SUPPORT
TO HELP US IMPROVE OR RESOLVE THE CURRENT SITUATION
SOCIAL MEDIA
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SHARED ISSUES, ARTICLES, FACTS AND MORE
FACEBOOK
TWITTER
INSTAGRAM
JOINED THE COMMUNITY
SERVICE SOCIETY
http://www.cssny.org
SIGNED PETITION
https://www.change.org/