New York can create more affordable housing
There are a host of ways New York State can create affordable housing, mostly on existing sites. The details matter or plans for new low income, affordable or workforce housing and Accessory Dwelling Units, or ADUs, are simply aspirational. No local government will buy into a state plan without details and money. Here are some of the ways it can be done:
● For ADUs: Create a uniform law; provide local options for towns, cities and villages; provide money to owners to get architectural plans and make physical changes to their homes; provide money to municipalities for building review and approval and inspections — before and after. No statewide mandatory action accept through enabling legislation and funding.
● Require 10% of every new multiple dwelling development with more than 100 or 200 units to be true affordable housing units. On affordable housing, it must be true affordable housing for a minimum of 20 years, best if subsidized by federal and state tax credits to effectively create the standards for eligibility and create a lottery for the units once a group of eligible renters are self-identified. These must have a variety for bedroom types to prevent segregation.
● Rebuild 1960s public housing (of a variety of kinds, but mostly federal) that currently offer one- or two-level housing units. When rebuilding them, add three or four more levels to so that five-level buildings are created. Two levels could be reserved for under-resourced families, two levels could be created for families who meet the income levels of tax credit subsidies and one level could be market rate. The sites exist mostly outside of cities where the 1960s housing is already multiple level. I know of one in Spring Valley near the rain station.
Add workforce housing and child care centers for any housing associated with a major economic development site like the Micron site in the upper Hudson Valley and incentivize workforce housing for nurses and various other workers at local medical centers that have sufficient land for a two- or three-story building on their campuses. All of these ways of creating new housing can be achieved if the New York State government creates the necessary legislation and identifies or creates the sources of funding where required. Then, let’s see what happens in 10 years, when the state should review the success or failure of these ideas.
Bruce M. Levine is former chair of the Rockland County Legislature.