Restore N.Y. credit for rehabilitating low-income housing

The following is from a Syracuse.com editorial:

Affordable housing is in critically short supply in New York. Gov. Kathy Hochul’s decision to end a tax credit for rehabilitating older apartment buildings will not improve the situation.

The Hochul administration said it wants to put its resources behind new construction of affordable housing, to increase the overall supply across the state. But the housing shortage would only get worse if existing units are allowed to deteriorate to the point that residents have to find somewhere else to live.

Apartment complexes for low-income tenants are in poor condition. Syracuse.com reporters interviewed residents who are putting up with water leaking down walls, black mold, broken furnaces and drafty windows in their decades-old apartment buildings.

The buyers and owners of those complexes were counting on a 4% federal low-income housing tax credit to help finance the renovations. But the state decided the credit can’t be used for existing housing anymore.

The Hochul administration is pushing developers to tap other state programs for rehabbing old buildings. That is easier said than done. In the meantime, sorely needed renovations are on hold.

We’ve yet to hear a good reason for the abrupt change in housing policy. It’s counterproductive to let existing apartments deteriorate so that new ones can be built.

If the state’s concern was that developers were abusing the tax credit on rehab projects, it has audit and enforcement powers to crack down on fraud or profiteering.

Whether a developer renovates or builds new, the costs of building so-called affordable housing are astronomical.

According to our reporting, a recent rehab project in Buffalo cost $285,000 per apartment. New affordable construction in upstate New York costs more than $400,000 per unit. You could buy a very nice house for that kind of money.

Hochul should reverse this policy change or come up with an alternative source of funding for affordable housing rehab projects. Hundreds of Central New York tenants are waiting.