The Public Housing Situation in New York City

After reading all the articles to understand more about the housing situation in New York City, I would choose to build a new public housing. There are factual evidences that there is a lack of housing to support the millions of people in New York. The increasing rents and the decreasing incomes are forcing people to move out to try their luck and find a more affordable place. These numbers honestly shocked me especially the comparison between the annual median household income of renter households and the annual income needed to afford a typical NYC apartment. The annual median household income is $39,916 and the annual income needed to afford a typical NYC apartment is $49,932 in 2011 (Housing New York). There is a difference of around $10,000 and this is not even including other expenses such as food, education, transportation, and etc. People are basically in the negative renting their living spaces and essentially have nothing to spare to spend on other expenses.

If I am going to build a new public housing, the construction of the building isn’t the only thing I have to be concern about. I have to take into consideration of where the housing will be located at such as being near an accessible transportation system, schools, markets, public spaces such as parks, and etc. I will also need to get involved with the people who will be living in the housing because at the end of the day, it will be their living spaces and their community. In addition, instead of building a totally new housing and starting anew by taking away everything that the people identified as part of the community, it might be a good idea to build within that community. Let the people in the community decide what they want and need. Instead of tearing the “old” buildings, build upon it by repairing them or at least try to keep some key characteristics that the people in the community will feel the most at home and familiar with.

Another data that sticks out to me in Housing New York is the disproportionate number of household units to household sizes. There are more 1 person and 2 people in households than there are household units which can accommodate 1 person or 2 people just fine. There are way more household units for more than 5 people than the actual number of household sizes that have 5 or more people. There is also the mention of an insufficient budget problem. These all bring me to my next point. In Anthropology last semester, my class watched a documentary called Urbanized. A housing development in Chile used the participatory design to build housing. The project had a limited budget so the developers couldn’t add everything that was standardized for a house such as a bathtub and a hot water heater. The developers originally thought the people who will be living there would want the heater because for the developers, hot water came first. However, when they actually discussed this with the future tenants, they chose the bathtub. This is because the expenses for the heater cost more and a bathtub is more familiar for them. They are also able to repurpose the bathtub for other uses such as washing their laundries in it. If budget becomes an issue for housing in New York, the builders can always consult with the tenants on what they would prioritize in a home and this can get them started on adding more features in their housing when they are able to in the future. The household unit should also be part of the participatory design so that the disproportionate household units won’t take up needless spaces.

I think the idea of rent controls is a good one since owners won’t be able to just increase the rents whenever they want without taking into consideration whether or not the renters can afford them. This will also decrease the number of people forced to move out of their communities because of the unaffordable prices.