PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Cara Eckholm, Member of the Public, on City of Yes for Housing Opportunity
12:22:46
·
120 sec
Cara Eckholm, a 4th generation New Yorker and renter, strongly supports the City of Yes proposal. She emphasizes the importance of increasing housing supply to improve affordability and addresses the urgency of the housing crisis for young New Yorkers.
- Refutes the claim that young supporters are part of an organized effort, stating it's a genuine response to housing concerns
- Highlights the evidence supporting the link between increased housing supply and improved affordability
- Stresses the importance of all aspects of the City of Yes proposal in addressing the housing crisis
Cara Eckholm
12:22:46
having me today.
12:22:48
I am a 4th Generation, New Yorker, coming out strongly in favor of city of yes.
12:22:53
My great grandparents moved here as garment workers in the early 1900.
12:23:00
Unfortunately, my family was not so lucky So as to buy and then hold those properties.
12:23:06
So primarily throughout the course of my family's history, we've been renters, and that means that we've been pushed to different neighborhoods as the cost of housing has increased over time.
12:23:18
And just want to respond to the comment made by the previous speaker that there's sort of a concerted organized effort to get young people out to speak today in favor of City of Yes.
12:23:30
And I think you're hearing so many voices from the next generation of New Yorkers because people are upset, and they're desperate, and they want to be able to continue to live in New York.
12:23:42
There is a preponderance of evidence to suggest that increasing supply does in fact increase affordability.
12:23:50
That means building all types of housing to deny that evidence at this point is comparable to denying basic science like around climate change.
12:24:00
We really need to treat this as a crisis that is of that magnitude and is not just a crisis that is going to be occurring, you know, in the future, but something that is happening today and is pushing people out who have had long family histories in the city of New York yet can no longer afford to live here.
12:24:20
So I just wanted to really emphasize that all aspects of the city of yes proposal are important to getting more housing built and that there are many people in my generation, thirty year old renter sorry, thirty two year old renter living in Brooklyn, but, you know, previously lived in Manhattan, who are really, really care about seeing this getting passed.
12:24:42
And it's not some kind of organized effort, but rather a byproduct of, you know, true
