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COVID-19 and the Rental Market
To shed light on how the potential non-payment of rent may be felt in the housing market, this analysis examines the housing stock occupied by renters in especially economically vulnerable professions. It also assesses which New York City neighborhoods are most vulnerable to non-payment of rent and the characteristics of the renters and housing stock in those neighborhoods.
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Data Updates
2019 Data on New York City’s Housing Stock
During 2019, the City of New York permitted the highest number of housing units since 2008, with the exception of a spike in 2015. Despite this recovery, permitted production was short of pre-recession levels. While permit activity increased, builders completed fewer units in 2019 compared to 2018, but this overall level was higher than completions in the first half of the decade. Of the 24,566 new units completed in 2019, more than half were located in six Sub-Borough Areas in Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn. New units added made up less than one percent of the city’s housing stock. The City also designated five historic districts in 2019, extending protections to the highest number of lots since 2015.
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News & Events
Insights into the Proposed Changes to the Community Reinvestment Act
On March 3, 2020, the NYU Furman Center hosted a policy breakfast titled, Insights into the Proposed Changes to the Community Reinvestment Act. The panelists brought a diverse set of experiences in mortgage lending and community development to discuss the importance of the CRA in low- to moderate-income (LMI) communities, the needs of LMI communities, and what the proposed changes mean for lenders and borrowers.
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COVID-19 Cases in New York City, a Neighborhood-Level Analysis
As of April 8th, New York City had over 80,000 cases of novel coronavirus. These cases are not evenly distributed across the city, nor is mortality from the disease. Neighborhoods with higher rates of confirmed COVID-19 cases have lower median incomes, higher shares of residents who are Black or Hispanic, and higher shares of residents under the age of 18 relative to less affected neighborhoods.
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Research & Policy
NYU Furman Center Comments on HUD’s January 2020 AFFH Proposed Rule
Under the Fair Housing Act and subsequent federal legislation, local jurisdictions that receive federal funding have a duty not just to prohibit discrimination in housing, but also to affirmatively further fair housing. For decades, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) failed to ensure that the recipients of HUD assistance fulfilled their obligation to “affirmatively further fair housing”—to identify and proactively address barriers that would preclude people from accessing housing based on a series of protected characteristics outlined in the 1968 Fair Housing Act as amended: race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability, and family status. After a promising regulation addressing these longstanding shortcomings was finalized in 2015, HUD proposed a new rule in January 2020 once again overhauling the AFFH regulatory framework, despite the early promise of the 2015 changes. The NYU Furman Center, with MIT Professor Justin Steil, submitted formal comments in response.
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Data Updates
What are the Housing Costs of Households Most Vulnerable to Job Layoffs? An Initial Analysis
As the COVID-19 public health crisis grows in New York City and across the United States, there is significant concern about the economic effect the crisis will have on workers in occupations susceptible to mass layoffs. Workers in a number of sectors face significant income loss due to closures, reduced hours, and cancellations. While a $2.2 trillion stimulus bill that expands unemployment benefits was signed into law last Friday, not all affected workers will have access to the expanded aid. In an effort to understand the scale of the issue and disparities when examining potential impacts by race, we reviewed pre-crisis incomes and housing costs of New York City residents who work in occupations that are more vulnerable to income loss (“vulnerable occupations”).
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Policy Minute: Protecting Housing Stability Amidst the COVID-19 Crisis
This Policy Minute explores related research, recent developments, and viewpoints on Protecting Housing Stability amidst the COVID-19 Crisis
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Data Updates
New York’s Housing Insecurity By The Numbers
U.S. Congress, New York State, and New York City policymakers are in the process of developing a financial package with programs that will provide emergency housing assistance to address the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on housing stability and the housing market. To help inform these efforts we’ve outlined the following key information about New York City and New York State households and provides context for New York’s unique housing market.
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News & Events
Facing the Past: Housing and Community Development Landscape of New York City in the 1990s
To commemorate 25 years since the Furman Center’s founding, we are looking back at some of the notable scholarship, writing, and people connected to the Furman Center since our founding in 1995. Kicking off this retrospective, we look back at a collection of essays published in 1999 called Housing and Community Development in New York City: Facing the Future. The Furman Center’s first Faculty Director, Michael H. Schill, edited this compilation.
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Research & Policy
Public Housing Repairs and Resident Health
A new study published in Health Affairs, conducted by Furman Center Faculty Director Ingrid Gould Ellen, researcher Kacie L. Dragan, and NYU Wagner Dean Sherry A. Glied explores whether transferring ownership to private developers, and subsequent housing renovations led to improvements in residents’ health over a three-year period. The authors conclude, “While the ownership transfer and broad-based renovation do not appear to have appreciably influenced any individual health outcome in the three years after renovation, they may have modestly moved the needle on aggregate health.”
