Albany’s planned changes to housing law the right move

Albany’s citizens deserve affordable and safe housing, and the City Council’s planned changes to Albany’s inclusionary housing law would address issues of equity in housing.

Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan claims new housing development will not happen if the ordinance is adopted. We heard the same argument when the original inclusionary housing regulations were first proposed and adopted. Based on the hundreds of apartments developed in Albany over the past few years, the regulations had no negative effect.

In Sheehan’s commentary “Council’s plan won’t boost affordable housing,” Feb. 11, she seems to base much of her opposition to the planned changes on the amount of profit developers will make. The mayor made no reference to how much burden renters must bear while for-profit developers pad their bottom lines.

There are three things that the mayor failed to note:

The difference between the

■ median household income in Albany and the nation’s median household income. Based on the latest census data, Albany’s median household income was $52,583. The nation’s was $69,021. The number of Albany renters

■ who are rent-burdened, those who pay more than 30 percent of their household income for rent. According to the census data, a whopping 55 percent of renters in Albany fit that description.

■ The lucrative tax breaks and payments-in-lieu-of-taxes developers receive from the Industrial Development Agency. These are tax breaks for which residents should benefit such as there being more affordable housing units.

The economic consequences of homelessness far outweigh the economic benefit for a handful of developers who put maximizing profits over the need of the community from which they ask tax breaks. Dominick Calsolaro

Albany The writer is a former Common Council member and a former board member of the City of Albany Industrial Development Agency