PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Patrick Boyle, Senior Director of Enterprise Community Partners, on City of Yes for Housing Opportunity
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120 sec
Patrick Boyle, representing Enterprise Community Partners, expressed strong support for the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposal. He emphasized the urgent need for zoning reform to address New York City's severe housing crisis, citing low vacancy rates and high rents.
- Enterprise Community Partners has invested $4.5 billion to create or preserve 66,000 affordable housing units in NYC since 1987
- Boyle highlighted statistics showing the dire state of housing affordability, including a 0.39% vacancy rate for apartments under $1100
- While acknowledging that zoning reform alone won't solve all housing issues, Boyle argued it is a crucial step towards increasing housing supply and affordability
Patrick Boyle
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Good morning.
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My name is Patrick Boyle.
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I'm a senior director at Enterprise Community Partners.
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Enterprise is a national nonprofit that exists to make a good home possible for the millions of families without one.
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We support community development organizations on the ground, aggregate and invest capital for impact, advanced housing policy at every level of government, and build and manage communities ourselves.
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Since our New York office opened in 1987, we have committed more than $4,500,000,000 in equity loans in grants to create or preserve over 66,000 affordable housing units across the Five boroughs of New York City.
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On behalf of Enterprise, I want to thank Chair Riley and members of the sub committee for the opportunity to deliver this testimony.
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As we all know, New York City is in the midst of a persistent affordable housing and homelessness crisis with the lack of adequate and diverse housing types playing a major role.
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The latest housing and vacancy survey showed a historically low 1.4% vacancy rate overall, and a stunning 0.39% vacancy rate for apartments renting under $1100.
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Median rents in New York City continue to reach one historic new high after another, fewer than 5% of units are of available apartments are affordable to the average household salary, and there are more than 18,000 families with children in the city's homeless shelter system.
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As these numbers demonstrate, our housing crisis most acutely impacts New Yorkers of low and moderate income.
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That keeps individuals unhoused or in shelter longer than necessary and prevents housing stability.
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We are long overdue in revising New York City's zoning resolution to allow for more flexibility, more as of right, development options, and more housing variety.
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To that end, enterprise supports the city of yes for housing opportunity and applauds this effort to look citywide in how we reform our zoning regulations to foster growth and tackle housing need.
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This will not solve every problem.
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It will not solve homelessness, fair housing, and all the host of other issues, and we support a broad comprehensive housing package to encompass all of those things.
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But this is a necessary step to bring about that housing growth we need to be able to house families in New York.
0:10:58
Thank you.
