Most agree there is a housing crisis in New York State. According to the New York State Comptroller, housing costs went up 68% in the last decade. Housing accounts for roughly 40% of total household expenses in New York City, where many residents spend on average $30,000 a year for housing. How can we all work together to address the housing crisis without raising taxes?
First, New York should allow all homes with in-law apartments to become two-family homes if the second unit is affordable (the owner/landlord accepts a Section 8 voucher to help pay for the mortgage). Currently, in Yonkers, to convert an in-law apartment to a two-family home, the owner needs to apply for a use variance, which involves meeting a burdensome four-prong test. Waive the four-prong test if the unit is made available as affordable housing. It makes no sense to differentiate your mother-in-law, brother, cousin or stepchild from a Section 8 voucher holder if the two units independently meet all local and state building and fire codes.
Second, New York's housing authorities, or HAs, and municipal governments should work together to address condemned properties. Developing or rehabilitating condemned properties as affordable housing would both increase the affordable stock and alleviate the risk of blight spread in neighborhoods. Deed covenants of land leases could preserve the properties’ affordability.
Third, allow HAs to purchase a small percentage, say 10% of the units in cooperative, or co-op, apartment buildings. Most HAs have money for home ownership programs and are ready to go. Co-ops provide homeownership opportunities in diverse communities for a fraction of the cost of building affordable housing. When you buy a co-op, you don't buy the apartment; instead, you are buying shares in a corporation that is the building. It costs the Yonkers Housing Authority nearly $800,000 to build a new passive house, one-bedroom apartment. The YHA could buy a 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom apartment on Bronx River Road for $235,000 or the Tuckahoe housing authority could buy a two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit on Garth Road in Eastchester for $325,000 for affordable housing tenants to rent-to-own. Putting affordable housing in those areas provides affordable housing tenants access to transportation on Metro North’s Harlem line.
Fourth, eliminate parking requirements for low-income and low-Area Median Income, or AMI, affordable housing so we can build affordable housing where empty parking lots live. In two of our properties with Westchester AMIs of 30%, 50%, and 60% (a family of 3 earns $39,650, $66,000, and $79,300 respectively), the number of parked cars per apartment is .53. A market-rate building in Yonkers requires one space per unit and an additional .33 of space for each bedroom. An affordable housing building with an AMI that goes up to 100% (a family of 3 earns $132,150) has .71 parked vehicles per apartment, which is still significantly less than the needs of market-rate units. These findings are duplicated in Orange, Suffol, and Putnam Counties. Municipalities need to recognize that if a family of three earns $38,650 they are very unlikely to own a car, pay car insurance and pay for gas in New York State. Consequently, instead of requiring HAs and other affordable housing developers to build expensive parking lots that never get used, let us use the space to build more housing units.
Opinion:Public housing in Yonkers and beyond in NY: Even the unicorns are drowning
New York is in a housing crisis. We need every kind of housing for families of every income. However, more than 500,000 people fled New York in 2022 because of rising taxes. Let’s not raise taxes to create affordable housing. Let’s make some tweaks to the system that currently exists to help alleviate the need.
Wilson Kimball is president and CEO of the Yonkers Housing Authority and executive director of the New York State Public Housing Authority Directors Association (NYSPHADA).
New York can add affordable housing without raising taxes. Here's how
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23.02.2024
Most agree there is a housing crisis in New York State. According to the New York State Comptroller, housing costs went up 68% in the last decade. Housing accounts for roughly 40% of total household expenses in New York City, where many residents spend on average $30,000 a year for housing. How can we all work together to address the housing crisis without raising taxes?
First, New York should allow all homes with in-law apartments to become two-family homes if the second unit is affordable (the owner/landlord accepts a Section 8 voucher to help pay for the mortgage). Currently, in Yonkers, to convert an in-law apartment to a two-family home, the owner needs to apply for a use variance, which involves meeting a burdensome four-prong test. Waive the four-prong test if the unit is made available as affordable housing. It makes no sense to differentiate your mother-in-law, brother, cousin or stepchild from a Section 8 voucher holder if the two units independently meet all local and state........
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