Michelle Cherian, Katherine Chiu, Allegra DePasquale, Heba Fakir
Macaulay Seminar 4
Toews
4/28/15
On the Underutilization of Land in NYC
New York City is an area that is home to over 8 million people. For many of these people, homelessness is a very real and very relatable issue. Homelessness is a problem that has its roots in the underutilization of land in New York City. Although there are many areas that are occupied by buildings, there are also issues surrounding the empty lots that are adjacent to these buildings. Underutilization of land is an issue defined by the lack of usability in areas like empty lots and buildings that are being put aside and not being occupied by human beings. This is a problem because a lot of this land could go towards resolving issues like the homelessness issue in New York City. Instead of being used for affordable or public housing, these empty lots and vacant building spaces are collecting dust while people are being forced to sleep outdoors.
Underutilization of land as defined by Josh Thompson, Community Board 6 fellow and Hunter College affiliate, is statistically defined as the inefficient use of already-constructed buildings under the FAR or floor-area ratio. This is a metric used to see if a building is being used to its most efficient capacity in terms of how much land is available for human use in square feet in a building per square feet per lot. This is an issue that was brought up at the Community 6 Board meeting that includes towns in Brooklyn like Red Hook. Although this is an issue that is specifically addressed for these towns, underutilization of land is certainly an issue that spreads to other towns in New York City, not just Red Hook. The underutilization of land not only has implications on homelessness, but also in the consequences of gentrification and ecological damage. People will have to find a place to live regardless of whether or not they can live in already-made buildings. Because of this, homeless people will have to construct their own makeshift housing despite there already being concrete buildings that can house all the people who are currently homeless. This puts a strain on the amount of resources being devoted to creating shelter and makes waste where there should not be. In regards to gentrification, underutilization of land is an issue because it causes the speeding of displacement of individuals from their homes. Gentrification raises the price of living in a solid building and those people who cannot afford to pay the rent are vacated, leaving an excess of empty building spaces where they could have lived. This then allows the value of land to increase and it is at the expense of these now homeless people that the local economy increases in the real estate sector. l
Homelessness has intensified in New York City. The many empty lots that are available, but have not been put to use, in Red Hook have aggravated the issue of homelessness, including the lack of affordable housing in the area. This issue has affected low-income families, minorities, the disabled, the elderly, and the homeless. Many communities have faced the same dilemma, and have formed several tactics to resolve it. Through squatting, communities have brought attention to the housing crisis by emphasizing the economic disparity between the rich and the poor. Squatting on vacant properties, is to occupy the property without title, right, or payment of rent.
By bringing the housing crisis that is related to homelessness, to light, organizations such as the Homes Not Jails have sprung in San Francisco, Boston, and Washington D.C. These organizations rely on acts of civil disobedience, where vacant buildings are occupied in order to display the availability of the land for affordable housing. The Homes Not Jails organization is also a proponent for city and state administrators to use eminent domain to claim unutilized and uninhabited buildings for public housing and affordable housing.
Public housing and affordable housing will help to diminish the housing crisis and the issue of homelessness. In Red Hook, the Carroll Gardens Association, Inc. is an organization that has developed affordable housing for low and moderate income households. Carroll Gardens Association Inc. has developed over 500 affordable housing in Red Hook, Columbia St. Waterfront District, Carroll Gardens, and the Gowanus. One of their housing achievements was on 722 Henry Street, Red Hook. The building on Henry Street has 16 apartments, 30% for community residents and 30% for homeless families and individuals. Another example of an organization that has developed affordable housing units in Red Hook, is the Red Hook Gardens LP. Red Hook Gardens LP has developed Rac Gardens, a low income housing project that has 60 units of low income apartments.
Some may say the government lacks enough capital for public housing and affordable housing, but through sweat equity, capital can be saved on making public housing and affordable housing. Sweat equity allows tenants to use their labor as rent, instead of their income, which for many low-income families is insufficient to pay rent The main idea behind sweat equity is to use the labor of residents and volunteers to build affordable housing; the use of sweat equity decreases the amount of government funding required to make the affordable housing units. With tactics like squatting, sweat equity, as well as organizations that fight for affordable housing, the community can alleviate homelessness and the housing crisis in Red Hook.
One of the major issues contributing to the excess of empty lots and the lack of affordable housing is the profit that comes along with keeping lots empty instead of converting them into apartments. David Harvey, professor of anthropology and geography at the Graduate Center at CUNY continues by stating that when apartments in a building aren’t being used as living spaces, you know that they’re being used as warehousing for their speculative funds, which they’ve invested in purchasing the house. These landlords or real estate investors keep these properties vacant so they don’t have to pay any money for maintenance, and eventually sell the property when the market price goes up in order to make a profit (“Uneven Growth”).
While this is a detriment to those individuals who need affordable housing, the government gives a lot of support to the real estate industry since it is the largest single donor to election campaigns. This gives the real estate industry a lot of power in the policy that shapes housing developments and how they are run, allowing them to create an environment that leads to the greatest profit. Tom Angotti, professor of Urban Affairs and Planning at Hunter College and The Graduate Center, adds, “Sometimes speculators can buy land and they can sit on it [property] for one, five, ten, twenty, thirty years or even longer” (“Uneven Growth”). There is no policy that truly limits the amount of time that speculators can sit on land, which basically allows them to put that land in their bank accounts and treat is as a commodity.
One simple policy that can be implemented that would widely affect the ability to turn empty lots into affordable housing is putting a limit on how long these speculators can sit on land without putting any use to it. This takes away the power of keeping land as a commodity and forces it to at least be put to use for housing. This policy would be implemented in areas that are zoned as residential areas, which restricts the speculators who buy the land, to only use it for real estate purposes.
The policy would also put a time limit on simply sitting on land to around one year and after that year is over, if the landlord does not comply with starting to rent out these apartments, they will be fined a certain amount of money each month. This takes out the profit that comes along with sitting on land. If speculators continue to sit on land in hopes of making a profit, they will have to factor in the fine that they will have to pay in order to keep their lots vacant. This puts a price on the keeping lots vacant, which defeats the purpose of speculators and landlords keeping them empty in the first place. At least, if they rent out these apartments, they will at least have the opportunity to make a profit instead of definitely facing a net loss from not doing anything with their purchased land.
This policy will also increase the amount of affordable housing. Kendall Jackson, housing campaign leader for the NYC Community Land Initiative and “Picture the Homeless”, explains that in a survey done over 20 of the 59 community boards in New York City, 6,040 vacant buildings and lots were found with the potential to house 199,981 people. Jackman explains all these empty buildings and lots were forced to be put to use, landlords could no longer charge, say $3000 for a studio apartment, because there would be more supply to meet the demand of housing, which will cause a decrease in the price of rent because it is not justified as it is now with a little supply of apartments, trying to be distributed to a large demand (“Uneven Growth”).
Now, how will this affect the community as a whole? Red Hook is an area that is filled with empty lots and multiple buildings that have vacant signs all over them. Josh Thompson, a planning fellow from Hunter College, 86 percent of lots are already zoned as residential area, but 77 percent of those lots are not being used to their maximum floor area ratio. This policy will be able to force individuals who own those vacant properties and turn these properties into housing. By turning these lots and buildings into housing, this forces these buildings to be cleaned up in order to create humane and sustainable living environments. Overall, this will create a more “aesthetically pleasing” living environment for everyone who lives in Red Hook along with the major contribution to the community, which is creating more affordable housing for the community.
The problem of vacant and underutilized land is far from being an issue unique to Red Hook, or to New York City. As the nation’s population continues to grow, we need to ensure every inch of land is used to its fullest potential, so that we can minimize homelessness and maximize both efficiency and sustainability. This is a complicated issue that requires tweaking based on the specific area, so that subsequent solutions are effective. We propose a bill, dubbed the Land Underutilization Act. This bill, for one, will establish a national council in which delegates from all fifty states gather to discuss vacancy, land underutilization, and land use decisions in their state. After thoroughly researching the issues specific to their state, they will customize the council’s solutions to underutilization to their needs. This council will compile statistics on land use in the United States, and will complete an assessment of land use efficiency for the broader context of the United States, as has been done in the Community Board 6 vicinity of Brooklyn, New York. The council will then make broad suggestions on how to best address these problems, based on the research for the entirety of the United States. It will be up to the delegates to formulate a plan specific to their state. The bill will mandate that the state governments must begin enactment of their delegates’ plans within five years of their proposal. This will help ensure that far from being empty rhetoric, the plans deriving from the council will be executed, thus ensuring land use efficiency and sustainability. Failure to comply with this bill will result in a $750,000 fine, the proceeds of which will go towards the implementation of the other states’ plans.
It is our sincere hope that this proposal will lead to less vacant lots and greater land use efficiency, which as we’ve explained, are two major issues facing Red Hook. The goal of this is twofold: 1) to promote sustainability, and 2) to alleviate social ills, such as homelessness and unsavory landlord practices. With our multi pronged approach, targeting each level of government and community, we hope to solve these issues from root to stem. Our proposal will address the causes and effects of vacancy and land underutilization, thus eliminating it as an object of concern. With this, we can be assured that as our populations swell, we will have every possible bit of land available to meet demand. This will benefit the economy, as efficiency equates to economic gain, and society, as people will have the most space available to them and vacant lots will no longer plague the neighborhood as eyesores. All in all, our plan is a positive one, and one that we believe can truly solve the problems of vacant land and land underutilization in Red Hook, New York, and where possible, the broader United States.
Sources:
Living Lots NYC. Map, 2015. Online. http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/census/popcur.shtml
Uneven Growth NYC. Cohabitation Strategies, 2014. Online.
