The report found that the pervasive use of Airbnb in New York City is likely the indirect causation of incredibly low residential vacancy rates and rising rental rates. In June of 2016, housing advocacy groups Housing Conservation Coordinators and MFY Legal Service jointly issued a study on the impact Airbnb and similar short-term rental-facilitating platforms have on the traditional housing market in New York City. While there are several companies connecting short-term rental apartments with … <Read More>
Search Results for: Housing
Affordable Housing Law Upheld
Association of developers and contractors of affordable housing claimed that local law on prequalification and disclosure violated their constitutional rights. On September 24, 2012, the City Council passed Local Law 44, which required the Department of Housing Preservation and Development to create a public website disclosing the scope and location of publicly-funded affordable housing projects as well as complaints about developers, contractors and subcontractors involved in the project. The website must also list which … <Read More>
Council Housing Committee Holds Hearing on Fiscal Year 2017 Executive Budgets
The respective budgets provide for increased operating funds to implement new departmental initiatives. On May 11, 2016, the City Council Committee on Housing and Buildings and the Committee on Finance jointly held back-to-back public hearings on the Department of Buildings’ and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s Fiscal Year 2017 Executive Budgets, respectively, which seek to provide each Department with an increased budget to implement the new initiatives introduced within the respective Executive Budgets.
Advocacy Coalition Launches Campaign to Urge Governor Cuomo to Release Affordable Housing Funds
The campaign seeks to push Governor Cuomo to release the funding before the conclusion of the legislative session on June 16, 2016. On May 23, 2016, the “Campaign 4 NY/NY,” an advocacy group endorsed by more than 300 organizations, launched a campaign urging Governor Andrew Cuomo to release the $2 billion committed in the State budget to the creation of supportive housing. Governor Cuomo announced the commitment in his State of the State address in … <Read More>
Say Hello to Mandatory Inclusionary Housing!
Almost 55 percent of all renter households in New York City now pay more than 30 percent of their income towards housing costs, an increase of 11 percent since 2000. As a consequence, the City Planning Commission found that “many of the city’s neighborhoods are becoming less economically diverse, which poses a threat to the city’s economic competitiveness as well as to the opportunities available to lower-income New Yorkers.”
Mandatory Inclusionary Housing is one of … <Read More>
City Council Members Torres and Levine Introduce Bill to Create Affordable Housing Watchlist and Online Map
The watchlist and online map would keep track of affordable housing rental units at-risk of becoming unaffordable, as defined by specified criteria. On April 7, 2016, New York City Council Members Ritchie Torres and Mark Levine introduced a bill to implement the creation of a watchlist for affordable residential rental units Citywide that are at risk of losing their affordable-housing status. The bill provides the requisite criteria to be met by a residential rental unit … <Read More>