Affordable Housing and its Issues in New York

Williamsburg is a site for gentrification.  This processes had been accelerated by the Bloomberg administration who, with the City Council, ignored a proposal by Jane Jacobs with the wellness of the current residents of people in mind.  Bloomberg ignored Jacobs’s suggestions to not destroy manufacturing jobs or to not create housing in the area that current residents could afford. The City Council created waterfront and luxury housing in large buildings which replaced factories and warehouses (Zukin 59).  By doing this the area gentrified: real estate upscaled and rents increased which displaced residents. The process of gentrification is not always catalyzed by city officials. It is a natural process caused by the socio-economic system with many positive and negative effects.  To counteract the negative effect of displacement, New York has received federal funding to create public and affordable housing. In doing so, poor and current residents of gentrifiable neighborhoods stand a chance to keep their rents low. To incentivise the building of affordable housing, tax subsidies are offered to developers if 20% of their housing were affordable rental apartments.

There are several problems associated with affordable housing.  For example, many people believe that there is not enough of it.  This is why Mayor De Blasio wants to create or preserve 200,000 affordable housing units by 2024 (Goodman).  This is difficult for a couple of reasons that further illustrate problems with affordable housing. In New York City, only 180,000 apartments are allowed to have federal subsidies.  This number is 10% lower than De Blasio’s goal and does not take into account future population growth. Also, most developers ignore the incentives to build affordable housing in lieu of creating normal housing with market rents which can end up being more profitable.  Even when developers agree to make 20% of their housing affordable rental apartments, there is no mechanism in place to hold developers to their agreement. Therefore, many of these apartments are finished as an afterthought of the normal apartments. They can also be relegated to a different building, or even be off-site, even though there is an additional 5% affordable housing to renters if it is.

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