It’s no question that the issue of homelessness is on the rise here in New York City, as more and more people are having a difficult time finding a place to call home. Mayor de Blasio set a goal to create 80,000 new affordable housing with the Mandatory Inclusionary Housing and Zoning for Quality and Affordability policies. These policies outline that city developers must include the construction of affordable housing if they want to rezone and build larger buildings. “The city only gets the affordable housing it needs if developers take the bait to build big.” (Abello 2016) However, in society, shouldn’t housing be a given? Why must affordable housing be available only if the wealthy also benefit? It seems that affordable housing is used as an excuse to put rezone. The reputation of the city has been built to be a money generator, tourist magnet, and like previously discussed in class, a “growth machine.”
Aside from the mayor’s plans, many people have made it their goal to create permanent housing and preserve their neighborhoods, an example being East Harlem. Community land trusts (CLTs) are formed to ensure that the community has a say in how its land is being used. While reading Blumgart’s article about the CLTs in Boston, I was having thoughts about if New York City could ever have CLTs too. I assumed that CLTs would have a hard time forming in New York City because Blumgart explains how acquiring land from the city can be “tricky” and what land is available in crowded New York? However, I did find out that that there are CLTs in NYC, a few being the Cooper Square CLT/MHA and Lower East Side People’s Mutual Housing Association. (NYCCLI) There was an award of $1.65 million to support the creation of CLTs, and from many of the accounts on the NYC Housing Preservation & Development website, CLTs seem to have a positive response from the communities and their representative. Lynn Lewis from the East El Barrio CLT said that CLTs are a way to create “permanent and truly affordable housing that includes extremely low income and homeless households.” (nyc.gov 2017)
Urbanist Pete Harrison describes 4 reasons as to why CLTs can be great for New York City, which are how inexpensive they are, how they prevent displacement, how community voices will be heard and how they “compliment private development.” CLTs provide a way for the people of community to become active and put their input in on how they feel their housing and land should be taken care of. I think my biggest concern though is how much time it would take. Uniform Land Use Review (ULURP) looks over how land would be used and listens to what the public has to say. But it’s such a long process. According to a chart on eastharlemplan.nyc, the ULURP process can take about 7 months. CLTs can go through issues too, as an agreement with the leaseholder can be “complex” and “lawyers initially may be reluctant to have their clients accept the agreement.” (CMHC 2018) And going back to the fact that finding land to purchase may be difficult, how much time would it take for CLTs to actually do the work that they promise?
CLTs do sound like a good step forward in incorporating the community’s voices in developing a plan on using land. From the thoughts that many CLT representatives have shared, it can provide a way for permanent housing. CLTs provide a better way in creating affordable housing than just allowing wealthy developers do their work. CLTs allow for affordable housing to be an actual goal of the city, rather than just an excuse for developers to expand their buildings.
Abello O. 2016 “How East Harlem Wrote Its Own Development Plan.” Next City. https://nextcity.org/features/view/east-harlem-neighborhood-plan-upzoning-affordable-housing
Blumgart J. 2015 “Affordable Housing’s Forever Solution.” Next City. https://nextcity.org/features/view/affordable-housings-forever-solution
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). 2018. “Community Land Trusts.” https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/inpr/afhoce/afhoce/afhostcast/afhoid/fite/colatr/colatr_002.cfm
http://www.eastharlemplan.nyc/
Harrison P. 2017 “4 Reasons to be Excited for Community Land Trusts in NYC.” Medium. https://medium.com/@petehomeBody/4-reasons-to-be-excited-for-community-land-trusts-in-nyc-69bb7b2d45e0
NYC Community Land Initiative. “Frequently Asked Questions.” https://nyccli.org/resources/clts-and-mhas-frequently-asked-questions/
NYC Housing Preservation & Development. 2017. “Enterprise Awards New York City $1.65 Million to Support the Formation and Expansion of Community Land Trusts.” http://www1.nyc.gov/site/hpd/about/press-releases/2017/07/07-19b-17.page
Like Allison, my immediate train of thought upon reading Jake Blumgart’s “Affordable Housing’s Forever Solution” was New York City could create CLTs, or Community Land Trusts. We share the same concerns and preference of CLTs over “affordable housing” units. As illuminated by Oscar Perry Abello, “the most affordable level in the mayor’s plan… [are] for households earning 40 percent of NYC’s area median income (AMI), yet 40 percent of New Yorkers fall below that threshold.” Therefore, the New Yorkers that need the housing the most are the ones that do not qualify. Thus, the low-income, neighborhoods of color have nothing to gain from Mayor de Blasio’s plan for upzoning. Both Allison and I critique the method in which these affordable housing units are created via MIH and ZQA. These policies rely on upon effectively (and temporarily) incentivizing private developers to include affordable units within their buildings. While these methods have contributed to more affordable units, this is only a temporary solution; developers stop receiving tax credits after 30 years and benefit more from gentrification than affordable housing.
Now I would like to bring attention to the fact that in this February, the city owns 1,125 vacant lots (Gonen). The reason why these lots are vacant is that they are “small and hard to develop” (Gonen). Though the Department of Housing Preservation and Development has announced that it has selected developers to develop affordable housing on 87 of those units, this announcement is not a happy one. Affordable housing is not tackling the root issue which is that the working class continue to lack housing (though perhaps that is their goal). These less desirable, vacant lots sound like the perfect opportunity for New York City to create more CLTs. As mentioned by Blumgart, a contributing factor to the success of Dudley Neighbors Initiative’s CLT is that they were able to purchase the lots before the property values rose and the private market eyed them. Clearly, those slim opportunities of purchasing vacant lots pre-speculation are becoming slimmer and slimmer. This only further highlights why NYC should jump on this limited opportunity while it can.
That being said, there are several obstacles that come with creating and sustaining a CLT, namely obtaining land and funds. What incentives can communities and organizations creating CLTs provide to private owners to convince them to sell their lots to create CLTs? How can we develop CLTs such that residents do not have to deal with the burden of mortgages and rehabilitation of the lots, and therefore leading to foreclosure? How can we convince the city to sell these lots to CLTs instead of private developers? As Peter Harrison reveals, “For decades [the city] has relied on an insider-favoring process that turns over vacant properties to private developers and some non-profit developers.” Can we organize to create or change policies or processes that perpetuate this? While Harrison suggests that the city should own the land trust 100%, I am wary that the city will do any better in investing in the community’s interests and needs. With the Trump administration proposing an $8.8 billion budget cut for HUD programs, coupled with a rent increase of 23% for residents, we clearly cannot extensively lean on the government (Fee). Furthermore, direct government control (versus outside support from the government) “can carry a serious risk of opacity, corruption and patronage” (Blumgart). A positive example of outside support from the government is $1.65 million funded by the HPD and Community Enterprises dedicated to the development of CLTs (Harrison).
Regardless of the obstacles and uncertainty that lie ahead in pursuing CLTs, I am tired of the city over-relying on the private market, which has resulted in the community’s needs and interested being sacrificed. CLTs provide a method of moving forward and taking action rather being stuck critiquing and remaining passive.
Additional References:
Fee, Rachel. “Trump Abandons Public Housing.” NYHC, New York Housing Conference, 16 Feb. 2018, thenyhc.org/2018/02/16/rachel-fee-op-ed-trump-abandons-public-housing/.
Gonen, Yoav. “NYC Wasting Vacant Lots That Could Be Housing.” New York Post, New York Post, 13 Feb. 2018, nypost.com/2018/02/12/nyc-wasting-vacant-lots-that-could-be-housing-stringer/.
Harrison, Peter. “Making the City’s Vacant Land Work for the Public.” Gotham Gazette, 18 Mar. 2018, http://www.gothamgazette.com/opinion/7524-making-the-city-s-vacant-land-work-for-the-public.