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Study Shows Where NYers Need Affordable Housing Most
By
David Colon
Published Sep 29, 2017
Modified Sep 29, 2017
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Courtesy SHoP Architects and James Corner Field Operations
By
David Colon
Published Sep 29, 2017
Modified Sep 29, 2017
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A new analysis of Mayor de Blasio's affordable housing program claims that the lion's share of housing is underserving the city's poorest rent-burdened residents in every borough but Staten Island.
The Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development put out a new infographic yesterday in which they looked at how the mayor's Housing New York Plan serves rent-burdened households in each borough across the city. In every borough except for Staten Island, a smaller percentage of housing was set aside for families who make between 0 percent and 30 percent of the Area Median Income and 31 percent to 50 percent of AMI than actually live in those boroughs.
The starkest difference in housing was found in the Bronx, where the share of families making between 0 and 30 percent AMI made up 59 percent of the borough's rent-burdened population, but were given only 19.7 percent of the affordable housing units built in the borough. In Queens and Manhattan, barely 10 percent of the affordable housing units built of preserved under the mayor's plan have gone to rent-burdened families in the lowest AMI band.
Continuing the conclusion that ANHD reached with a previous analysis of the housing plan's ability to help rent-burdened households overall, the borough-by-borough analysis showed that rent-burdened families making between 51 percent and 80 percent of the AMI ($52,000 to $69,000) and above are over-represented in the amount of housing units set aside for them. In their previous analysis, ANHD suggested that a focus on serving rent-burdened families is the best way to gauge how effective the Housing New York Plan would be at making a dent in the city's affordability crisis.
In every borough but Staten Island, a majority or plurality of new or preserved affordable housing goes to rent-burdened families at the 51 percent to 80 percent AMI. The borough with the largest amount of those units, Brooklyn, has seen 56.9 percent of the units set aside for that income band, while just 16.1 percent of rent-burdened families in the borough live in that AMI.
While the exact income levels to determine rent-burdened households vary between the boroughs, ANHD writes that their analysis shows "the distance between the kind of affordable housing our City is creating and the kind of affordable housing it will take to actually address our affordability and homelessness crises is remarkably consistent."
Melissa Grace, a spokesperson for Mayor de Blasio disputed the conclusion of the study in a statement she gave to Gothamist.
"The record is clear: this Administration is building and preserving historic numbers of affordable homes for the very poorest New Yorkers. As we work for the lowest income families, we will continue to fight for working class New Yorkers. People making $45,000 or $50,000 a year and supporting two kids struggle to afford this city, too. Telling these families to fend for themselves is not an option. We’ll continue to push for affordable housing that keeps this a city for everyone."
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association for neighborhood and housing development
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David Colon
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