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TESTIMONY
Brendan Cheney on the New York City Housing Affordability Crisis
2:04:23
·
154 sec
Brendan Cheney testifies on the severe housing affordability crisis in New York City, emphasizing the need for continued rent stabilization laws.
- Cheney highlights a vacancy rate of 1.4%, the lowest since 1968, and notes that virtually all renter households earning under $25,000 are rent burdened.
- He points out the significant gap between the addition of new households and the construction of new housing units since 2001, contributing to the affordability crisis.
- According to Cheney, the median income of renters has significantly increased, indicating shifts in the city's demographic composition and exacerbating affordability issues.
- Cheney calls for multi-level governmental intervention, including more funding for affordable housing, support for housing acts and voucher programs, and tax incentives to promote rental housing production with affordable housing requirements.
Brendan Cheney
2:04:23
Good afternoon.
2:04:24
My name is Brendan Cheney with the New York Housing Conference.
2:04:27
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today.
2:04:29
I've submitted our full testimony, but in the interest of time, I'll summarize the main points.
2:04:34
The latest New York City housing, a vacancy survey clearly shows that the city continues base that has an emergency and growing affordability crisis that warrants the continuation of rent stabilization laws.
2:04:45
And the data this time is particularly alarming.
2:04:48
And I've already gone over a lot of this, but 1.4 percent vacancy rate the lowest since 1968 and for units renting for less than $1100, it was just 0.39 percent.
2:04:58
Virtually all renter households earning under $25,000 or rent burden, and 86% of them pay more than half of their income on housing.
2:05:06
And renter households earning less than 70,000 had a median rent to income ratio 54%.
2:05:12
This means that the typical renter in New York City was paying more than their income on housing.
2:05:17
And despite this alarming crisis, we're still not building enough housing.
2:05:21
While there was a net increase of about 61,000 units since 2001, The city added 275,000 new households.
2:05:28
So we're adding more households than we're adding housing.
2:05:33
When supply doesn't meet the demand, renters are forced to compete for the same limited number of apartments.
2:05:38
This drives up costs and creates and even greater power imbalance between renter and landlord.
2:05:45
The data also showed a significant increase in the median income of renters from 50,000 dollars in 2021 to 7000 in 2023.
2:05:53
This appears to be driven by big changes in the city's population.
2:05:57
Households earning a $100,000 or more per year increased by 11%, while the number of households in the city at the lower incomes decreased.
2:06:05
So the scale of the housing affordability crisis is staggering.
2:06:08
We must enact multiple changes at different levels of government if we are truly to address the crisis.
2:06:13
We must all fight for more funding for affordable housing construction and preservation and funding for rental assistance.
2:06:20
At the state level, this means supporting the proposed housing act.
2:06:23
Access voucher program.
2:06:24
At the city level, we must also expand city perhaps.
2:06:30
Expand eligibility for city perhaps especially.
2:06:33
We are supportive of the city of yes, for housing opportunity to build a little more housing in every neighborhood, and we look forward to talking with the city council about that.
2:06:42
A new as of right rental tax abatement is also necessary to incentivize rental housing production with an affordable housing requirement without a rental tax incentive rental housing production is like lead a plummet.
2:06:54
Thank you for the opportunity to testify, and I'm happy to answer any questions.