PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Moses Gates, Vice President of Housing and Neighborhood Planning at Regional Plan Association
2:53:37
·
155 sec
Moses Gates from the Regional Plan Association expressed support for Intro 958 and highlighted the urgent need for affordable homeownership in New York City. He emphasized the benefits of limited equity programs in balancing affordability with wealth-building opportunities for homeowners.
- Pointed out that the homeownership vacancy rate in NYC is at its lowest point ever (0.77%)
- Explained how limited equity programs can allow households to build significant equity while maintaining affordability
- Suggested focusing on smaller buildings, revamping tax incentives, and exploring new programs to increase affordable homeownership opportunities
Moses Gates
2:53:37
My name is Moses Gates.
2:53:38
I'm Vice President of Housing And Neighborhood planning at Regional Plan Association.
2:53:42
We're a nonprofit, non governmental civic group dedicated to furthering affordable housing and provide the environment and energy policy and transportation in the Tri State region.
2:53:57
I wanna express my support for this introduction and note a few a a few points about home ownership and the need for affordable home ownership in New York City.
2:54:09
We hear a lot about our 1.4% vacancy rate here in New York.
2:54:14
The homeownership vacancy rate is also at its lowest point ever.
2:54:17
Point 77%, lowest since we started the housing and vacancy survey.
2:54:23
And so the need, it has never been greater.
2:54:27
And I wanted to point out a few things about limited equity programs, which are a wonderful balance between making sure that homeownership stays affordable and still allowing households to build wealth.
2:54:42
And in 80% of AMI, after 30 years, an 80% AMI household owning a 2 bedroom apartment, under a pretty conservative underwriting scenario, we get about $440,000 in equity in year 1, year 1 dollars while still maintaining that apartment is affordable to 80 percent AMI folks going through the future.
2:55:06
So I encourage the council to focus on the provision of limited equity opportunities.
2:55:14
It's wonderful that down payment assistance is such a focus of HPD, but in order for down payment assistance to work, production and housing production needs to come along also.
2:55:25
We can do that by passing city of yes with its focus on on smaller buildings.
2:55:32
More likely to become naturally occurring cooperative, affordable cooperatives and condominiums.
2:55:38
We can do it by revamping before 85x tax incentive by making it based on sales price and not assessed value, which gives the developers more certainty that they'll obtain it, and we can do it by more of a focus.
UNKNOWN
2:55:54
Time has expired.
Moses Gates
2:55:55
Yeah.
2:55:56
Process.
2:55:57
Such as by light tech conversions and and other other new programs.
2:56:03
Affordable Homeownership is one of the big successes as our last panelist testified
