Post by High Priestess on Nov 28, 2015 16:13:40 GMT
See this New York Times editorial about affordable housing issues in New York City (which effect laws on Airbnb rentals in that city):
The New York TImes Story
"Mayor Bill de Blasio has a plan that he says will preserve economically diverse neighborhoods in New York City, significantly and permanently increase the affordable-housing supply and create a more attractive streetscape. In community meetings across the city, New Yorkers are finally having their chance to respond.
The winds of “no” are blowing strong.
The public-review process is moving ahead on two rezoning programs that are central components of Mr. de Blasio’s promise to build or preserve 200,000 affordable apartments over 10 years. One of those plans would require that new residential buildings in rezoned neighborhoods include apartments permanently set aside for tenants paying below-market rates. The other plan changes the rules on height and density so that more housing can be squeezed into the space which is available.
The administration says that it’s impossible to halt market forces in a city where housing demand so grossly exceeds supply but that the market can be harnessed for good. It says that a smart rezoning plan — along with an array of other initiatives, like aggressive legal help to protect tenants from harassment and eviction, could potentially help save East Harlem, East New York, Flushing and a dozen other neighborhoods from going the way of gentrification as Williamsburg, Bushwick, and Long Island City have.
Residents in the neighborhoods due for rezoning are wary. A meeting of Community Board 11 in East Harlem this month was typical of gatherings across the boroughs. It began with a consultant’s slide show that seemed designed to stupefy anyone not steeped in the worlds of real estate and zoning. Except the room was full of renters, many of whom knew exactly what the man was talking about, or thought they did.
To many in East Harlem and other parts of the city where the working class and poor scrape by, construction means disruption, which inevitably means gentrification and dislocation. The rent always goes up, but they fear that the zoning changes will only make it rise faster and higher, inevitably making them exiles from their own city."
One of the comments posted by a reader on this article, points up a problem that I think is not sufficiently understood and acknowledged -- namely, that it has just gotten very expensive to build housing. So it's not really possible to build "affordable housing" when the cost of building it requires that the rents be sufficient to pay for the construction:
The New York TImes Story
"Mayor Bill de Blasio has a plan that he says will preserve economically diverse neighborhoods in New York City, significantly and permanently increase the affordable-housing supply and create a more attractive streetscape. In community meetings across the city, New Yorkers are finally having their chance to respond.
The winds of “no” are blowing strong.
The public-review process is moving ahead on two rezoning programs that are central components of Mr. de Blasio’s promise to build or preserve 200,000 affordable apartments over 10 years. One of those plans would require that new residential buildings in rezoned neighborhoods include apartments permanently set aside for tenants paying below-market rates. The other plan changes the rules on height and density so that more housing can be squeezed into the space which is available.
The administration says that it’s impossible to halt market forces in a city where housing demand so grossly exceeds supply but that the market can be harnessed for good. It says that a smart rezoning plan — along with an array of other initiatives, like aggressive legal help to protect tenants from harassment and eviction, could potentially help save East Harlem, East New York, Flushing and a dozen other neighborhoods from going the way of gentrification as Williamsburg, Bushwick, and Long Island City have.
Residents in the neighborhoods due for rezoning are wary. A meeting of Community Board 11 in East Harlem this month was typical of gatherings across the boroughs. It began with a consultant’s slide show that seemed designed to stupefy anyone not steeped in the worlds of real estate and zoning. Except the room was full of renters, many of whom knew exactly what the man was talking about, or thought they did.
To many in East Harlem and other parts of the city where the working class and poor scrape by, construction means disruption, which inevitably means gentrification and dislocation. The rent always goes up, but they fear that the zoning changes will only make it rise faster and higher, inevitably making them exiles from their own city."
One of the comments posted by a reader on this article, points up a problem that I think is not sufficiently understood and acknowledged -- namely, that it has just gotten very expensive to build housing. So it's not really possible to build "affordable housing" when the cost of building it requires that the rents be sufficient to pay for the construction:
Tom Massachusetts 41 minutes ago
Greater Boston is experiencing similar issues. A recent study showed the source of the problem is much more than supply and demand. The biggest factor: the cost of development. It's now too expensive to build new housing that is affordable to the middle class. I suspect the same is true in NYC. Maybe taller buildings and more density can help spread the cost over more units.
More from the Boston study:
“When we thought in the past, why can’t supply keep up with demand in the housing market, we now know the answer,” said Barry Bluestone, of the Northeastern University team who analyzed the data. “It can’t, because the costs of production are too high."
“Unless we can find ways of bringing down land costs, zoning costs, construction costs, it will be almost impossible for any developer to put up housing in Greater Boston that working families can afford,” he said.
Here's a link to the study:
www.wbur.org/2015/11/13/housing-report-card
Greater Boston is experiencing similar issues. A recent study showed the source of the problem is much more than supply and demand. The biggest factor: the cost of development. It's now too expensive to build new housing that is affordable to the middle class. I suspect the same is true in NYC. Maybe taller buildings and more density can help spread the cost over more units.
More from the Boston study:
“When we thought in the past, why can’t supply keep up with demand in the housing market, we now know the answer,” said Barry Bluestone, of the Northeastern University team who analyzed the data. “It can’t, because the costs of production are too high."
“Unless we can find ways of bringing down land costs, zoning costs, construction costs, it will be almost impossible for any developer to put up housing in Greater Boston that working families can afford,” he said.
Here's a link to the study:
www.wbur.org/2015/11/13/housing-report-card
