May 26, 2012 · www.gothamgazette.com

Gotham Gazette
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Housing
Internet resources for what you need to know on NYC Housing
Favorite Sites For Beginners

The Topic
Housing refers to all dwellings in NYC - from luxury condos with views of the Park to battered in-rem apartments in the South Bronx - and the laws and policy disputes that they produce.
The Context
The percentage of vacant and available housing stock in NYC has never exceeded 4.01%. This extraordinary housing scarcity makes for the highest rents in the US. Unlike citizens of most big American cities, where slightly over half of units are owner-occupied, more than two-thirds of New Yorkers are renters. And - bucking the national trend again - more than two-thirds of New York apartments are rent-regulated in some way. The housing crunch shows no sign of easing up, as new construction is impeded by the highest building costs in the nation. Of the little new construction that does occur in NYC, the vast majority takes advantage of some government subsidy or exemption. Also to note: the city within a city that is New York's 170,000 units of public housing - by far the largest amount of public housing anywhere in America.
The Reporter
Rebecca Webber is a journalist who has covered housing issues for Gotham Gazette since July 2000.

by Rebecca Webber

The Community Garden Settlement; Widening Gap Between Rents and Wages

While running for mayor, Michael Bloomberg discussed ways to address the city's shortage of affordable housing in a report called Housing for All.

"We must increase the number of housing units by at least 100,000," he wrote in June 2001, "and we must lower the cost of construction to make them safe, pleasant, maintainable, and affordable for all who live here."

Now Mayor Bloomberg has taken a concrete step toward that goal, resolving a three-year-old controversy about community gardens, city-owned properties that New Yorkers have used to grow flowers, vegetables, and other greenery. The mayor and New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer recently announced an agreement that will allow the city to construct more than 3,000 units of affordable housing on 150 garden sites, while preserving and protecting almost 500 others.

"Since the day this lawsuit was filed, I have asserted that New York City residents need affordable housing and community gardens, and this settlement proves that they can indeed have both," said Attorney General Spitzer. "We need to preserve as much green space as possible, while at the same time allowing for development where appropriate. I applaud Mayor Bloomberg for recognizing that these two goals are not mutually exclusive."

Some of the plans for new housing will move forward immediately, including 462 units to be built through the Housing Partnership between the city Department of Housing Preservation and the New York City Partnership, an organization that calls itself "the voice of New York City's business community on legislation, regulation and public issues that impact business and the economy."

This comes at a time when the National Low Income Housing Coalition has just released its annual report which highlights the lack of affordable housing in every corner of the country.

The organization has just released the 2002 version of "Out of Reach", which compares minimum wage income to an area's fair market rents, as set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The fair market rents are a payment standard for federal voucher programs and other housing assistance.

Since the federal housing agency adjusts fair market rents every year, and federal minimum wage has not changed since 1997, it is not surprising that this year, the coalition found that rental housing is "farther out of reach than ever" for the nation's working poor.

"We look forward to the day when we can report that the housing wage is decreasing and the gap between rents and incomes is narrowing. Unfortunately for the millions of low-wage people in America, 2002 is not that year," said Sheila Crowley, president of the coalition.

The national Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that about 2.24 million Americans earned the federal minimum wage or less in 2001; about 60 percent of those were the heads of their households, or their spouses.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition's report also calculates each area's "housing wage," which is the hourly wage that allows a worker to afford the area's fair market rents. Affordable housing costs are those that consume no more than 30 percent of one's income.

In New York City, one must earn $15.67 per hour (at 40 hours per week) to afford the fair market rent of $815 for a studio apartment, and $19.83 to afford $1,031 for a two-bedroom. While this is higher than the national housing wage average of $14.66, New York City NYC is actually better off than many other metropolitan statistical areas, especially those in California. The top ten housing wages were as follows:

Metropolitan Statistical Area Housing Wage
(per hour calculated as affordable for a 2 bedroom at the area's fair market rent)

  • San Francisco, CA $37.31
  • San Jose, CA $33.85
  • Stamford-Norwalk, CT $27.62
  • Oakland, CA $26.42
  • Boston, MA-NH $25.83
  • Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA $24.96
  • Nassau-Suffolk, NY $24.52
  • Westchester County, NY $23.88
  • Orange County, CA $22.21
  • Santa Rosa, CA $21.65


Sites For Beginners:


Other Recommendations:

  • The Rent Guidelines Board - Comprehensive apartment-hunting guide for beginners or old hands. Great links to research and data on NYC housing, including the 1996 Housing and Vacancy Survey.
  • City Limits - Investigative reporting about housing and other issues facing New York's low-income communities for 22 years. Archives available to 1996.
  • The Cooperator - Free online magazine for co-op and condo dwellers. Articles on current news affecting co-ops and condos, such as utilities deregulation or indictments of corrupt management companies, change monthly. Includes helpful Q&A sections in which tenant questions are answered by lawyers and accountants, and a reference library of detailed advice on topics such as building finance or selling your unit.
  • NYU Law School Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy - A detailed summary of the NYU Law School Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy's report "Reducing the Cost of New Housing Construction in New York City." Also features links to other research and the Center's programs and events.
  • Homelessness: Programs and the People They Serve - HUD and the Urban Institute's new survey of homeless people and the service providers who work with them every day provides an intimate portrait of homelessness across America. Those surveyed revealed that more than 40% of homeless people work at least part time, 39% struggle with mental illness, and about a third of the homeless are now or were once child runaways. Only 8% are panhandlers.
  • Mr. Landlord - The Internet Resource for Landlords and Landladies. This comprehensive site offers a wealth of resources and free advice on do-it-yourself rental property management. Visitors can find help with setting up a webpage for their own rental ads or locating sample rent agreement forms. Its services also include a Q&A interactive discussion among fellow landlords; tax, mortgage and rent calculators; and a free weekly e-newsletter on management techniques.
  • Realty Times - This archive of free articles from the Realty Times, a realtors' professional publication, offers advice on issues of concern to apartment dwellers. Articles cover many legal concerns such as how to rent with roommates and tenants' rights to minor repairs, plus simple ideas on interior dicor or what to do if neighbors are noisy. The main page, http://realtimes.com, contains links on other residential real estate topics of interest to consumers, including mortgages and "The Truth About Condo Living."

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