#NYChousing Day 2: Permanent Affordability

Should the next mayor require developers to permanently maintain the affordability of units developed or rehabilitated with public subsidies?

 

WHY IT MATTERS: The city, state, and federal governments help address the shortage of affordable housing by subsidizing the development, rehabilitation, and operation of affordable units. Currently, developers who use these subsidies must ensure the affordability of new and rehabilitated units for only a set period of time, and after this period, developers can “opt out” of the affordability.Several candidates for mayor have proposed changes to these subsidy programs that would require developers to make the units permanently affordable as part of the initial agreement, or grant the city the unilateral right to pay for an extension when the first period expires. These changes would prevent developers from opting out and charging market rents. However, requiring permanent affordability or giving the city the option to extend the affordability restrictions may increase the cost of developing new affordable units, potentially commit the city to an ongoing subsidy, and have other consequences as well.

Read the full brief for today's #NYChousing question here: Full PDF

Check out the #NYChousing series schedule here and view all of the briefs released to date in the document below: 

 

 

 

The #NYChousing series identifies 10 key affordable housing issues that will confront the next mayor of New York City, aiming to inform the public about the tradeoffs involved to the public debate by providing an objective analysis of the pros, cons, and questions the mayoral candidates should address head-on. Between August 20th and August 29th we will be releasing daily issue briefs about these key issues (see the topic schedule here.). We will also be hosting daily twitter conversations on the topic of the day at 11 AM ET. Follow us on Twitter at @FurmanCenterNYU.