Events
New Solutions for Housing Extremely Low Income Households
Date: Tuesday, November 16th 2010
On November 16, the Furman Center’s Institute for Affordable Housing Policy hosted its second policy breakfast in a two-part series, The Challenge of Housing Extremely Low Income Households in High-Cost Cities. Over 120 leaders from across New York City came together to explore innovative approaches to meeting the housing needs of the very poor.
Panelists included:
• Rafael Cestero, Commissioner, Department of Housing Preservation and Development, City of New York
• Linda Gibbs, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, City of New York
• Jerilyn Perine, Executive Director, Citizens Housing and Planning Council
• Michelle de la Uz, Executive Director, Fifth Avenue Committee
• Ingrid Gould Ellen, Faculty Co-Director of the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy (Moderator)
The panel discussed strategies for stabilizing households in their current housing, stretching the capacity of the city’s existing housing stock, and building new housing at lower cost. The distinguished panelists discussed several policy proposals, including:
* Rental insurance to support extremely low income households facing short-term hardship;
* Deliberate integration of workforce development programs and economic development strategies to connect extremely low income New Yorkers to training and job opportunities;
* Innovative space-sharing models that could allow for more efficient and cost-effective use of space;
* Potential changes to housing codes and occupancy standards to more efficiently use the City’s existing housing stock; and,
* New earned-income disregard policies that could apply to additional household members, reversing existing policies that inadvertently encourage smaller households over larger ones.
