Housing plan will aid New York state in more ways than one

Millions of New Yorkers in communities across the state are mired in a devastating housing crisis, with more than 1.5 million households spending more than 50 percent of their income on rent. It is an untenable situation — and this figure is from before the pandemic.

Fortunately, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Legislature have stepped up to address this crisis before. Their five-year housing plan, which allocated $20 billion to create and preserve 110,000 units of affordable housing and 6,000 supportive units, improved the lives of countless New Yorkers. With funding set to be exhausted next year, now is the time to guarantee funding for its final year and commit to another five years.

New York is facing an unprecedented fiscal crisis. The upcoming state budget is expected to be one of the most painful in our history, and it may be impossible to fund every worthy initiative. Still, housing is too important to suffer this fate.

Consider that 33,700 households in Albany, Buffalo, Syracuse and Yonkers alone have experienced COVID -19-related job loss. Those households collectively owe $36.2 million in monthly rent and require $18 million in monthly rental assistance. This insecurity is a symptom of a disease in which

housing is too expensive: One of three rental households in those cities spends at least half their income on rent.

Unreasonable housing costs are also a matter of racial justice. A 2018 analysis found that New Yorkers of color are disproportionately rent-burdened in Albany, Buffalo, New York City, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers. This affects their ability to receive adequate health care, spend on groceries, and save for the future — all of which have surely been exacerbated by the pandemic, which has hit these communities hardest.

Housing scarcity also contributes to our worsening homelessness crisis, which impacts Black New Yorkers most of all. The Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative component of the plan helps our most vulnerable neighbors — including those who have experienced homelessness and struggle with mental illness, addiction and domestic violence — find a welcoming home with the services they require to thrive.

ESSHI is the first long-term commitment to supportive housing outside of New York City, but a renewed financial commitment is needed now. Without it, the transformative projects it funds will grind to a halt.

These financial commitments are prudent economics. Permanent supportive housing is cheaper than chronic homelessness, and the production of affordable housing is an economic driver. A NYSAFAH study found that the typical 100-unit affordable housing project in New York creates 175 construction jobs, 20 additional permanent jobs, and $3.6 million in sustained local activity.

A new five-year housing plan will help provide relief to struggling New Yorkers. It will ease the humanitarian emergency that is our homelessness crisis. And it will strengthen the economy now and in the future. The bottom line is that it is exactly what we need.

New York has risen to the occasion in the past. Now it must do so again or risk leaving its most vulnerable residents behind.

Also contributing to this article were Rachel Fee, executive director of the New York Housing Conference; Judy Kende, vice president and New York market leader of Enterprise Community Partners; Laura Mascuch, executive director of the Supportive Housing Network of New York; and Valerie White, executive director of LISC NYC.