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by | June 14, 2013 · 4:44 pm

Friday News Round-up!

  1. Federal sequestration has taken an excruciating toll on the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). According to Crains’ New York Business, the cuts will impact 650,000 New Yorkers that utilize the agency’s apartments and Section 8 vouchers. NYCHA will reduce payments for its 95,000 recipients, leading to less rental subsidies and, in turn, higher rents for low-income tenants. And, (featured in another Crain’s New York Business article), of the 6,000 new Section 8 vouchers that the city intended to distribute this year, zero will be given out. Additionally  the cuts will severely impact NYCHA’s workforce, resulting in a hiring freeze, furloughs, and possible layoffs. We hope that the city finds some way to turn this unfortunate reality around…
  2. At the 13th Annual New York State Supportive Housing Conference, Mayor Bloomberg announced his new commitment to supportive housing as part of his new Housing Marketplace Program. Crain’s New York Business reported that he would seek to prequalify developers to build supportive housing on city-owned land. This initiative would aim to double the development of supporting housing, building 1,000 units of supportive housing per year. And, this new strategy would require developers to pay rent to NYCHA , which will offer the agency needed support given the reality of the sequester. While Bloomberg’s housing plan has both created and preserved 15,000 units of affordable housing, more creative ideas, such as these, must be implemented to ensure that every New Yorker has a place to call home.
  3. In an effort to prevent yet another disaster, like Superstorm Sandy, from reeking havoc on our city, Mayor Bloomberg has devised an unprecedented plan to build numerous levees, flood walls, and bulkheads along the coasts. According to the NYTimes, the plan will cover 250 miles of coast and initially cost $20 billion.  To cover the costs of this endeavor, the city will utilize both federal and city funds. While this plan is incredibly ambitious in terms of time, money and labor, it will hopefully prevent another disaster from impacting the city in such a catastrophic manner.
  4. This week, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Urban Institute released a report entitled, 2012 Housing Discrimination Study: Housing Discrimination Against Ethnic and Racial Minorities. The work elucidates an unfortunate truth: housing discrimination against people of color is alive and well. Unlike previous forms of discrimination, the report illustrates that these practices exists in more subtle manifestations. For instance, real-estate agents show fewer housing options to people of color than equally qualified white folks. We hope this report will make discriminatory housing practices more visible and, in turn, reduce their frequency.

Have a great weekend!

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by | May 17, 2013 · 3:18 pm

Friday News Round-Up

Here’s a short list of some of the stories we’ve been following today. As always, have a great weekend and we’ll see you on Monday!

  1. Last week, and today, Philadelphia students walked-out of school to protest harsh budget cuts that would totally gut the public school system, which is already suffering from austerity. Of note to New Yorkers: the plan, which initially included the closure of over 40 public schools, was prepared with the help of the Boston Consulting Group. If that name doesn’t ring a bell: its the same neoliberalizing global business entity hired – to the tune of $10 million – to study NYCHA.
  2. Legal Services is on strike. In the past year, Legal Services attorneys have represented tenants in at least 15 of the buildings we organize, and the work they do is invaluable to low income New Yorkers. Support them in their fight.
  3. We’re basically just waiting to see when Anthony Weiner will announce he’s running for mayor. In the meantime, check out this piece by Michael Mckee of the Metropolitan Council on Housing: “Why No Tenant Should Vote for Anthony Weiner.” In a city chock full of tenants that’s a bold claim — but his record in the City Council calls for it.

 

 

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by | March 6, 2013 · 1:57 pm

NYCHA Lots to Be Used For Luxury Housing

photo: NY Daily News

photo: NY Daily News

In an extremely controversial move, NYCHA Chairman John Rhea announced his plan to lease “unused” space on NYCHA lots to build luxury housing developments. The “unused” space for the developments are currently parks, baseball diamonds, and parking lots. Initially, this plan would involve eight NYCHA lots in Manhattan.

NYCHA faces a desperate fiscal situation, which is unlikely to improve on its own. According to City Limits, NYCHA faces a yearly deficit of $40 million in operating costs and $6.6 billion in capital needs.  The money raised by leasing up NYCHA spaces would be used to provide much needed repairs and maintain the 334 public housing developments throughout the city.  John Rhea describes the plan as necessary for the stability of the large housing authority.

However, elected officials are calling on the city to delay plans for moving forward, particularly because they – as well as tenant leaders and community members—have been widely left in the dark.  The city is due to receiving requests for proposals from developers this month.

As part of the plan, the luxury apartments would need to be twenty percent “affordable,” though as we’ve seen in other recent development projects, “affordable” in this context is not necessarily “affordable” to a low-income family. The eighty percent remaining units would be “market rate.”  In the proposed booming neighborhoods like the Lower East Side, market rate rents are extremely high.

As a result  of the “mixed income” aspect of the new apartment buildings, the developers would be given a 35 year tax credit. It is hard to imagine how luxury apartments built on city property would be exempt from paying taxes – isn’t the point of Rhea’s plan to increase the flow of money into city government? According to Eliot Sclar, the Director of the Center for Sustainable Urban Development (CSUD) at Columbia University’s Earth Institute:

That is the tax deal given to developers on private land…In this case, they are privatizing public resources; they should leverage it much more.

This issue of privatizing public land highlights a much larger issue – the privatization of previously public entities, such as housing and education (through charter schools). With this trend, corporations and companies are exerting greater and greater control over the ways that we receive our basic rights, such as housing or education. While this might not appear problematic initially, it becomes detrimental when education or housing is simply about making a profit for a company. What happens when that endeavor is no longer profitable?

We see this issue all the time in private multifamily buildings we work in. Private, predatory developers buy-up regulated housing for the sole purpose of making a buck.  (Or several bucks.) When it becomes apparent that a property is not profitable, the owner ceases to take an interest in the day-to-day living conditions for tenants and ignores basic needs such as heat and hot water.

Current NYCHA tenants have many legitimate fears about NYCHA’s plan to build luxury departments on their lots. First and foremost, tenants fear being pushed out of their neighborhoods and homes.  City Limits published an article this week highlighting social costs of this proposal. One tenant interviewed by City Limits, Aixa Torres, lives in the Smith Houses on the Lower East Side and speaks to her concern of hardening class divisions though this development plan:

Torres says she has already experienced what happens when outsiders wander into Smith Houses. “They don’t pick up after their dogs. People disrespect us. We’ll be treated as second class citizens in our own home.”

NYCHA tenants need to be given a voice in what happens to their homes, and they are calling on the agency to address their concerns about leasing to luxury developers before the plan moves forward. At the moment, tenants fear their rent will go up, that they will soon be displaced through continued city-wide pushes towards gentrification, and increased class and social divisions.  As community activists, organizers, and residents of New York City, our goal should be to make sure that tenants have a say in what happens to their homes. Without that say, anything could happen. Even luxury apartments being built on NYCHA lots.

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by | January 11, 2013 · 2:10 pm

Friday News Round Up

A quick list!

  1. On Wednesday, Governor Cuomo delivered his third State of the State address. According to the New York Times, the speech is “turn left” for the Governor, who has been seen as a pragmatic if not particularly progressive. He vehemently spoke about enacting harsher gun control laws, making further Sandy repairs, increasing the minimum wage, and extending school days. Of utmost importance to UHAB’s work is the $1B proposal to create more affordable housing.  
  2. A new sub-prime lending tactic is threatening to instigate another mortgage crisis. According to AOL News, the new lending practice allows sellers to lend money to buyers in order to purchase property. However, the buyers do not have good credit and wouldn’t have access to these mortgages otherwise. To us, this tactic seems predatory and, if not regulated, could cause homeowners to undergo foreclosure.  Let’s hope that lenders have learned something from the housing crisis…
  3. In an effort to improve conditions in apartments impacted by Sandy, NYCHA may turn apartments into boiler rooms. Many of the units in NYCHA buildings are vacant, and the boilers are placed in basements that are susceptible to water damage. While this tactic is understandable, we wonder why these vacant units aren’t being filled with displaced persons. Can’t they put the boilers above sea level and also NOT in an apartment? People need apartments around here! Every unit matters!
  4. A Manhattan Federal Court judge ruled this week that parts of NYPD’s controversial Stop and Frisk policy are unconstitutional. Police have been ordered to stop making trespass stops outside private residential buildings immediately. The highly controversial tactic has been called into question for racial profiling and infringing on civil liberties. Another bad policy bites the dust! 
  5. Hunts Point Produce Market provides more than half of New York’s fruits and veggies, but is considering relocating when its lease is up with the city. The State of New Jersey is wooing the major Bronx employee to the Garden State, with offers of tax breaks. Yesterday, despite rumors that a deal had been reached to stay in N.Y., Hunts Point Market has unexpectedly rejected a lease offer from the City. A move could leave the city with 4,000 fewer jobs, higher food prices, and less fresh options.

And, of course, there’s the trillion dollar coin. Have a good weekend!

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by | January 4, 2013 · 2:57 pm

Friday News Round-Up!

congress

This week, we left another year behind and started anew! With the first week of 2013 behind us, we’d like to round out the events of the week.

  1. Today, the House of Representatives passed a $9.7 B bill to support homeowners that continue to battle with the aftermath of Sandy, with the primary goal is of helping homeowners and local governments recover from the unprecedented costs of the storm.  Specifically, the bill gives the National Flood Insurance Program the ability to utilize the allotted money to fill insurance claims stemming from the storm’s damage. The bill still needs to pass through the Senate (which is expected to happen later today.) With the detriment of Sandy still plaguing many New Yorkers and New Jersey-ers, we’re glad to see the federal government taking more initiative to further recovery efforts. This news comes after outrage directed at Speaker Boehner earlier this week for tabling a different measure.
  2. This week, The Atlantic Cities published an article advocating for the implementation of more effective rent control laws. Tatian illustrates that the rates of rental vacancies have dropped from 11.1 percent in 2009 to 8.6 percent in 2012. He attributes the decrease in vacancies to the current mortgage market, where homeowners are confronted with unstable mortgages as well as an inability to obtain new mortgages. As a result, there has been an influx of renters in the market. While he recognizes the importance of stricter rent control laws, he also understands they are vastly unpopular.  To better reflect the reality of renters (especially those seeking affordable housing) and he advocates for the creation of diverse housing with harsher affordability regulations and  better tenants protections.
  3. Delayed affordable housing construction in Williamsburg and Greenpoint has perpetuated gentrification.  Seven years ago, several high-rise high-rent buildings were commissioned to be constructed in these neighborhoods. At the time, the city and developers  associated with these projects agreed that 3,500 units would be preserved as affordable housing through various programs, including NYCHA.  As of now, expensive high-rises now line the East River, but the affordable housing units on the 12-acre Cooper Park House is non-existent.  The delayed construction is attributed to bureaucratic tendencies and, prioritization of other housing developments. With neighborhoods like Williamsburg and Greenpoint gentrifying rampantly, we hope that developments, like Cooper Park House, will become priority.
  4. With the culmination of 2012, Pete Souza, official White House photographer, posted his most intimate photographs of President Obama and other executive elected officials on Flickr. The pictures range from the moment President Obama was briefed on the Sandy Hook shooting to the moment he heard that Osama Bin Ladin was killed to time First Lady Michelle Obama competed in a potato-sac race with Jimmy Fallon. The photographs are heart-wrenching and zany. Souza’s series serves as a point of reflection as well as humanizes our leaders, acknowledging their fallibility and capacity for growth.

Have a great first weekend of 2013 and we look forward to an exciting year at UHAB!

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