New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer today released an updated analysis that reveals the alarming decline of affordable apartments for New Yorkers since 2005. The report, “The Gap is Still Growing: New York City’s Continuing Housing Affordability Challenge” builds off of a 2014 analysis released by the Comptroller and shows that as hundreds of thousands of new residents move to the City – not only has the total number of units failed to keep up, but the alarming drop in affordable and rent-regulated units has accelerated, with over one million affordable apartments leaving the market since 2005. This dynamic is leaving working New Yorkers with fewer affordable rental units and is fueling a growing affordable housing crisis.
Key findings from the report include:
- Since 2005, New York City experienced a net loss of over one million apartments renting for $900 or less.
- At the same time, the number apartments renting for $2,700 or more jumped four-fold, replacing many lost low-rent units.
- A large portion of the decline in affordable housing comes from the erosion of rent-stabilized units, of which the city has lost 88,518 units since 2005 – more than the entire addition of new rental housing over the same period.
- All rent figures are in inflation-adjusted 2017 dollars, further emphasizing the rising cost of renting an apartment in New York City.
“Our city is losing low-rent apartments every day, and it’s putting whole communities at risk. We have an affordable housing shortage – and this report shows how quickly the loss of affordable housing has accelerated in the last decade,” said Comptroller Stringer. “Behind these one million lost units, are countless New Yorkers – families, seniors, students and immigrants – who are working harder than ever to put a roof over their heads. We can’t let the entrance fee to the city become a luxury condo, or we will stop being the city we know and love. As our City’s economy and population continues to expand, we need to use all the tools we can to protect our communities. Lawmakers in Albany must act swiftly to eliminate vacancy decontrol and pass other common-sense rent regulation reform that will preserve our affordable housing stock and keep New York accessible for working families.”
“The Upstate/Downstate Housing Alliance is pleased to stand with NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer as he presents a report about the extreme loss of housing that is affordable for low income New Yorkers. Across New York City, half of low income renters pay more than 50% of their income in rent. I will say it again, tens of thousands of New Yorkers are a paycheck or emergency away from homelessness. With the weakening of the rent laws, lack of universal rent control, and the ability of landlords of unregulated apartments to evict tenants at whim, we are raising our voices to stress the urgent need for a course correction,” said Delsenia Glover, of the Upstate/Downstate Housing Alliance’s #HousingJusticeForAll campaign. “We are in the worse homeless crisis this state has seen since the Great Depression – there are 63,000 people sleeping in shelters each night in this city and 89,000 across the state. The Upstate Downstate Housing Alliance commends Comptroller Stringer for providing the data that shows that the time has come to put power back in the hands of the people and demand that our state legislature fix this massive crisis.”
“We are in the largest housing crisis since the Great Depression. While landlords are gutting protections for tenants, Comptroller Stringer’s report shows we are seeing massive losses of much needed affordable housing. We need Albany to pass Universal Rent Control to protect every tenant in New York,” said Jonathan Westin, Executive Director of New York Communities for Change.
“As the Comptroller’s report makes clear, New York’s rent stabilized housing stock is in serious jeopardy and Albany must act immediately,” said Judith Goldiner, Attorney-In-Charge of the Law Reform Unit at The Legal Aid Society. “This entails eliminating landlord loopholes, vacancy decontrol and the vacancy bonus, and reforming our state’s broken preferential rent system. The Legal Aid Society thanks Comptroller Stringer for bringing attention to an issue that impacts thousands of poor New Yorkers each day.”
“As he has so many times in the past, Comptroller Stringer is shining a light on just how great the need is for affordable housing in New York City,” said Jonathan Furlong, Director of Organizing at Housing Conservation Coordinators. “HCC is proud to stand with groups from the Upstate/Downstate Housing Alliance as we begin to mobilize for the renewal and strengthening of the Rent Laws in 2019,” he said.
“The city’s massive drop in affordable housing is not news to communities in north Brooklyn. Renters and communities of color have acutely suffered, while developers and landlords have benefitted immensely. CUFFH is proud to stand with Comptroller Stringer and support the Upstate/Downstate Housing Alliance’s campaign for much-needed legislative action toward universal rent control and housing justice for all youth,” said Charlie Dulik, CUFFH Youth Organizer.
“Truly affordable housing is paramount in retaining NYC residents in a time when real estate speculation and hyper gentrification is at an all time high,” said Mychal Johnson, co-founding member of South Bronx Unite and board member of the South Bronx CLT, Mott Haven-Port Morris Community Land Stewards. “Our communities can not afford the ‘affordable housing’ that is being created.”
Further findings in the updated report include:
Stark Shifts in the Housing Market
Since 2005, the rental market landscape has shifted from one predominantly consisting of lower-cost units to a market dominated by middle, and, even more so, by high-rent apartments.
- In 2017, apartments renting for $900 or less constituted just 20 percent of all rentals, down from 74 percent of total rental apartments in 2005.
- At the same time, the number of apartments renting for more than $2,700 shot up from just 2.7 percent of all apartments in 2005, to 13.9 percent by 2017.
Erosion of Rent-Stabilized Housing Fuels Affordability Crisis
Contributing to this broad shift toward higher cost housing over this period was a continued erosion in the inventory of rent-stabilized housing.
- The city experienced a net loss of 88,518 units of rent-stabilized housing between 2005 and 2017.
- More stabilized units were removed from the inventory than were added in every year except 2017, when a large number of rental units were stabilized after the renewal of the 421-a program that provides tax exemptions for constructing affordable housing.
- High-rent vacancy deregulation – which occurs when a vacant rent-stabilized apartment legally surpasses the threshold amount of regulated rent – was the biggest contributor to the loss of rent-stabilized housing since 2005.
- Higher thresholds for vacancy decontrol – as described above – which rose from $2,000 to $2,500 in 2011, and to $2,700 in 2015 have helped slow down the high-speed disappearance of rent-regulated units in recent years.
Subsidized Households Were Not Immune to Upward Rent Pressure
- For Section 8 voucher holders, rent growth outpaced income growth by a rate of 3-to-1, as average contract rents increased by 29.9 percent while average household incomes rose by just 8.7 percent.
Comptroller Stringer is calling on Albany lawmakers to act swiftly on a package of rent-reform measures including eliminating vacancy decontrol, reforming major capital improvements, reforming individual apartment increases, reforming preferential rents, and ending the 20% vacancy bonus on rent stabilized apartments.
To read the full report, click here.
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