Category: 1/29/16

Public housing when maintained properly can be extremely useful to residents who need a place where they can “breath” so to speak. A place that can provide them with the security and affordability they need to get back on their feet or try and move up in the world. It is a place where people who want to improve their own live and/or the lives of their families can go to try and provide a safe area for their families to grow up and make enough money to move up someday. What they have become with the beginning of the 1970’s is not what they were designed for they need to be a place where the youth is nurtured not corrupted and where families grow together not fall apart. That is why i would expand affordable housing and build them in such away where not only the government would maintain but also the residents could contribute. For example the housing projects i would construct would contain public gardens where residents could grow their own fresh grown vegetables. They would also contain a youth center where parents can leave their children and feel secure while also making sure their children are safe. The buildings i would construct would also be close to public transportation so that it is accessible to residents without a car. The buildings i would construct would be rent controlled because people usually living in public housing cant afford the regular price of rent in the city. However this idea of affordable housing would probably be extremely expensive and not very profitable for those who build it that is why i would have the government build it. Also i would not force my residents to furnish the houses.

Just about everyone knows that there is a affordability crisis in New York. The blighted 70’s and 80’s were fixed first by the iron fist of Giuliani and then by the money bags of Bloomberg. Now Bill De Blasio desperately tries to implement his progressive agenda without much help from the Feds or the State. He has always been ambitious and a lot of his plans he has been able to get through with a lot of bargaining with the State legislature.

I don’t necessarily think building new public housing is bad idea but I do think there are much better ideas out there. De Blasio knows he can’t get the funding he really needs from his pals in Albany so he should try to be as realistic as he can. Having private developers investing in the building of new housing where certain apartments have to be affordable or are rent-controlled is a very smart strategy. Building new sprawling HUD complex’s is risky and usually ends up getting bogged down and given a band reputation before doors even open. The larger problem here is income inequality and the wrong being image projected of what a successful New York means. Wall Street and the tech industry are great but they don’t help keep New York an affordable city. The poor people and the minorities get pushed to the outskirts of town to keep up the image of a perfect safe New York that has been built up since the late 90’s. I hope that De Blasio’s intentions here are really to rebuild New York as a place for the middle class. Right now the city (especially Manhattan) is essentially a playground for the super rich and the expense is forcing young creative people out and bringing boring yuppies in (even the “creative people” are pretty talentless). Affordable housing in the form of rent-control or in the form of law making is the only solution to stop the tide of green that has changed the character of the city for the worse.

Until I read this assignment I was not aware of the severity of the NYC housing crisis. The fact that 55% of all rental households in 2012 were rent burdened, (spending more than 30% of their household income on rent), and the number of homeless people has more than doubled since 2000 is disturbing (Housing New York). While this problem is obvious, the solution is much more complicated. America’s capitalist economy pushes people, (apartment owners), to raise prices when demand increases. Many renters do not make enough money to afford these buildings. The number of renters who cannot afford the ridiculously high prices has steadily increased calling for a demand in more affordable housing, whether it be housing projects, rent controlled apartments, and/or vouchers.

I do not hate housing projects as I feel some people do. I know that they provide homes for many people who would either be living in worse apartments or on the street. I am aware of the serious issues that many projects face. Due to mismanagement, lack of funding, etc. they are often rundown and dangerous. Housing projects are not a solution to the bigger problem of income inequality and the widening gap between the rich and the poor. I do not believe that the answer lies in building more projects for the reasons stated above, but mostly because New York lacks the money and space to do so.

I do like the idea of rent control. Not only is it a way for lower income families to live in safer neighborhoods, but also it keeps gentrification at bay. If the residents of a neighborhood have rent controlled apartments, and wealthier people move to the neighborhood, it is less likely that the previous residents will be driven out entirely. The idea that all new buildings should be required to have a certain number of their apartments rent controlled is a good one. If there was some way to require already established buildings to do the same there would instantly be more affordable apartments.