REMARKS
Council Member Salamanca introduces hearing on Intro 958 to increase affordable homeownership
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Council Member Rafael Salamanca, Jr. introduces a hearing on Intro 958, sponsored by Speaker Adrienne Adams, which aims to increase affordable homeownership opportunities in New York City. He outlines the current state of homeownership in the city, highlighting racial disparities and the challenges faced by potential homeowners due to rising prices.
- Intro 958 would require HPD to approximately double the rate of new affordable homeownership construction.
- The hearing aims to learn more about HPD's approach to supporting homeownership and gather feedback on the proposed framework.
- Salamanca emphasizes the importance of homeownership for family stability, neighborhood stability, and intergenerational wealth building.
Rafael Salamanca, Jr.
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Alright.
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Welcome back.
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I would like to recognize that we've been joined by speaker Adrian Adams, and we've also been joined by a council member painting Los Angeles.
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And now we will move on to our hearing regarding intro 958, which as I mentioned, is sponsored by speaker Adrian Adams and seeks to increase affordable home ownership opportunities across the city.
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The benefits of home ownership are well documented and include greater stability for families and neighborhoods, as well as the opportunity for intergenerational wealth building.
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However, access to home ownership in New York City remains profoundly unequal, while approximately 33% of New York households citywide owned their home, only 28% of black and 17% of Hispanic Latino households are homeowners.
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This is ongoing disparity reflects a legacy of racial discrimination from the days of redlining.
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To more recent predatory lending and speculative practices like deed, theft.
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In this context of persistent inequality, New Yorkers seeking to become homeowners face growing challenges.
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The city's medium home price has more than doubled since 2000 when adjusted for inflation and now stands in over $700,000.
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The lack of affordable home ownership opportunities is one of the prime factors driving more and more working in middle class families to leave New York.
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The council is seeking all available policy tools to increase access to homeownership.
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The Department of Housing Preservation And Development, HP Dean, has devoted significant resources to the preservation of affordable homeownership units which account for nearly 35% of county preservation units since 2014.
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However, in the new construction, HPD has overwhelmingly allocated resources to development of affordable rental apartments with the agency's open data showing that fewer than 3% of the new construction units since 2014 are homeownership units.
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Intro 958, which would require HPD to approximately double this rate of new home available homeownership construction as a minimum baseline going forward.
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At this hearing, the council looks forward to learning more from HPD about the agency's approach to supporting homeownership and gathering further feedback from housing advocates and the public under proposed framework, and any additional ideas on how to achieve its intended goals.
