Q&A
Addressing housing needs for the lowest income New Yorkers
0:46:18
·
5 min
Council Member Sanchez focuses on housing for the lowest income New Yorkers, particularly those at 20% AMI and below. She inquires about HPD's efforts to reach these households and whether the city is advocating for reforms to the LIHTC program to finance deeper levels of affordability. Commissioner Carrión and First Deputy Commissioner Tigani provide details on HPD's strategies and programs.
- HPD reports that over 90% of their housing is for households at 80% AMI and below, with a significant portion going to extremely low and very low income households
- The agency uses a combination of federal tax credits, capital subsidies, and vouchers to target housing for the lowest income brackets
- Tigani mentions that up to 90% of their vouchers are targeted at 40% AMI and below
- The discussion highlights the agency's commitment to serving homeless New Yorkers and the most vulnerable populations
Pierina Ana Sanchez
0:46:18
And so my my next question is, you you know, I'm a broken record and a commissioner.
0:46:23
You used to represent district 14, so you can particularly understand my focus on the lowest income New Yorkers.
0:46:30
So the the most recent housing vacancy survey found a 1.4% vacancy rate, but a function a functional vacancy rate of of 0 when it comes to the lowest rent units.
0:46:42
And there's a highlight that Family's earning $25,000 or less.
0:46:48
90% of those if they receive no subsidy or no other supports are housing cost burden.
0:46:54
$25,000 for a family of 3.
0:46:56
That's an AMI of about 20%.
0:46:58
And so focusing and zooming in on that AMI of 20%.
0:47:03
Can you share what the agency is is doing in particular?
0:47:07
And I asked the version of this question last week.
0:47:09
But what is the agency doing in particular to reach the 20 percent of AMI households.
0:47:15
And with respect to the tax relief, let me the tax relief for American families and workers that is considering reforms to the Li Tech program is the city fighting for and is our federal delegation fighting for us to be able to finance deeper levels affordability through LiTech than we can currently do right now.
Adolfo Carrión Jr.
0:47:34
So I think it's important, and it deserves repeating that.
0:47:42
The lion's share of the housing that we build is for low income households.
0:47:49
In fact
Pierina Ana Sanchez
0:47:50
I'm sorry, commissioner.
0:47:51
When when you say low income households Yeah.
Adolfo Carrión Jr.
0:47:53
No.
0:47:53
I'm gonna get into that.
Pierina Ana Sanchez
0:47:54
That's fine, please.
0:47:55
Thank you.
Adolfo Carrión Jr.
0:47:55
So so so better than 90% of the housing that we finance, new construction and preservation is households.
0:48:07
80% of AMI and below.
0:48:10
But if you go down to 50 percent AMI and below, we're still the the share of the housing that we produce is still better than 2 thirds dedicated to those households.
0:48:25
And if you go down even further to 30 40 percent AMI, you're still talking about 4 out of every 10 units that we produce going to extremely low income and very low income households, which are below 50% of AMI.
0:48:45
A large share of that is households between 0% 30% of AMI.
0:48:53
And then, of course, we're constantly advocating for more support for vouchers for people who have little to no income to cover that part of the demographics of the city.
0:49:10
And maybe 1st deputy commissioner, Tigani, can talk a little bit about some of the work we do at that lower end of the spectrum.
Ahmed Tigani
0:49:21
Yeah.
0:49:22
I would just add that for our vouchers that we use to commit to our extra low most vulnerable families.
0:49:30
We see up to 90 percent of our vouchers are targeted 40% and below, which allows us to take that combination of federal tax down dollars.
0:49:41
Remember, the low income the low income housing tax credit benefit is actually geared to 80% below.
0:49:47
It allows us to drive and use capital is to ensure we're building our Ella projects, our extra low and low income projects.
0:49:55
We couple that with the strength that comes from the federal subsidy to drive that down down and allows us to go forward, and that's why you see 42% of our subsidized production serving up to 30% of AMI.
0:50:06
You know, in addition, we have a commitment to serving those who are vulnerable in our homeless shelters.
0:50:12
The the bill that was passed by the council that moved forward a policy that HPD had it beforehand to make sure that we were creating housing for home, Mister New Yorkers continues to be a very critical piece of our work.
0:50:25
In addition, to those commitments in our term sheet.
0:50:27
We often talk to developers about volunteering more units, and we see them comes to the table.
0:50:34
We're creating more units for homeless New Yorkers.
0:50:36
And on this part, we continue to work around the processes speed up the placement of dozen Yorkers into the housing.
0:50:45
So our toolkit for funding is geared toward the extra low and low income housing.
0:50:50
We couple that with the voucher support that allows us to dig deep into the 30 40% AMI level, and we have our homeless New Yorker set side commitments that allow us to make sure that we're serving every portion of our vulnerable families.
0:51:05
And, again, this allows is still to continue to help middle and moderate income New Yorkers who are also feeling the crutch of the housing crisis.
0:51:15
So we are you know, we look to this as the baseline as the commissioner said.
0:51:19
We're thinking about other ideas to make that to make that even a stronger strategy.
Pierina Ana Sanchez
0:51:26
Thank you.
0:51:26
Thank you, commissioner and first deputy commissioner.
0:51:28
And I'll just I'll say I I'd love to see a a breakout of the number of of families served at 0 to 10% of AMI, 10 to 20% of AMI.
0:51:38
Layering, you know, the voucher supports and everything else that you've mentioned.
0:51:41
And, yes, always welcome partnership to to get those affordability levels deeper.
0:51:47
I I now wanna turn it over to council member Hudson to to ask her questions.