We are supporting efforts to repeal the Urstadt Law which prevents New York City from regulating its own housing. This law prevents our City Council from taking steps to preserve affordable housing, despite the fact that this issue is almost exclusively limited to New York City. Other areas of the state are given control on issues of strictly local importance, and New York City is entitled to the same consideration.
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We are advocating for new programs to improve the affordability of existing buildings. We short-change our efforts to improve affordability by focusing too little attention on the millions of housing units that already exist. We should provide incentives to landlords to create affordable housing within existing buildings through tax abatements and financing. There is even an opportunity to provide subsidies on energy efficiency improvements in exchange for affordable units. This would reduce landlords operating costs, increase New York’s affordability, and address environmental issues.
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We are working to preserve the remaining Mitchell-Lama housing units, reform the program to attract new development, and help ease the strain of buildings leaving the program. The Mitchell-Lama program was one of the most successful affordable housing programs in the country. Between 1955 and 1978 more than 100,000 high-quality, middle-income rental and cooperative apartments were created in New York City under this program. To date, more than 30,000 of those units have left the program with much of the rest in danger of leaving in the next few years.
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