On affordable housing, think outside the box
Dear Editor,
During the Nov. 1 Common Council meeting, I was frustrated by our aldermen who voted in favor of selling the property at 623-639 Delaware Ave. to a developer. Our aldermen kept saying that they’ve “done their due diligence” and that they did a “pretty good job” within the parameters set before them and in accordance with the law.
The law, as it stands, has clearly failed the poor and working class and led us here, where people are getting priced out by the same types of development that this new property, heralded as a good deal, will be. One alderman last night said that we need housing “for all income levels.” I disagree. Housing insecurity and the physical and mental repercussions affect poor and working people more, according to several studies, than the rich or whoever can afford $2,300 a month in rent.
As this body diverts time and resources to scraping back $150,000 in taxes, it shows us that our elected leadership does not have the money or the imagination to meet this moment. We won’t create the units needed for housing solvency by going piecemeal, so we need to think outside the box.
We live in a sort of Neo-Feudalism, where “lords” live among us who have amassed more money than we could possibly ever imagine, while our state and local governments scrape and claw for back taxes in an amount these lords could lose in the couch. Some of these lords can be philanthropic; others fiendish devils who sit on their hoard of properties. The city should appeal to the more giving of these lords, and ask them to donate or create a fund specifically for affordable housing that the public gets to weigh in on.
In addition to that, we could increase the affordable housing percentage on new properties to 25%, change zoning laws to allow for building up or over parking lots, or seize properties that are being warehoused. It’s not my job to rethink housing in the U.S., but, dagnabbit, this is a crisis, and someone ought to start.
— Gerald McAdoo
Kingston, N.Y,