PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Samir Lavingia, Member of Manhattan Community Board 5, on City of Yes for Housing Opportunity
10:44:39
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124 sec
Samir Lavingia, a resident of Midtown and member of Manhattan Community Board 5, spoke in support of the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposal. He emphasized the need for more housing to address rising rents and the risk of displacement faced by himself and his family. Lavingia argued that building more homes is crucial to pushing rents down and making housing more affordable in New York City.
- Highlighted personal experience of being cost-burdened, paying over 50% of income on rent
- Expressed support for all proposals in the package, including income-restricted units and market-rate housing
- Drew comparisons to cities like Austin where increased housing supply led to falling rents
Samir Lavingia
10:44:39
Hi.
10:44:39
My name is Sameer Livongia.
10:44:40
I've met some of you in many different capacities, but I wanted to be clear that I'm speaking in my personal capacity as a resident.
10:44:46
First, I wanted to thank Manhattan Community Board 5, which is why I live for supporting CBS with some certain conditions.
10:44:52
Some people have said no one supports this or no community board support this, but are ones that do including the one where I live in.
10:44:58
I live in Midtown on 55th on Broadway, and I'm severely cost burden paying over 50% of my incumbent rent.
10:45:04
I live in a market rate building, and my rents keep going up.
10:45:06
My parents live a block away.
10:45:08
In a market rate building, and their rents keep going up.
10:45:10
My brother and his wife live in a market rate building in Dumbo, and their rents keep going up.
10:45:14
You may see a pattern here where our family of renters were constantly at risk of displacement.
10:45:19
That's why I'm here because I want myself and my family to be able to stay in our communities.
10:45:24
As a millennial in this high cost market, I'm all but assured to never have homeownership within reach.
10:45:29
Thankfully, good cause, which was past recently, will help with stability.
10:45:32
However, it won't help me if I have kids and wanna find a new apartment.
10:45:36
They won't help my parents if they wanna live somewhere closer to my brother and dumbo if his wife and him have kids.
10:45:42
What will help is a little more housing in every single neighborhood, which is what the city of Jasper housing opportunity does.
10:45:48
At broad strokes, I wanted to say that I'm thrilled, but how many homes and affordable homes will bring for the people who the market will not provide homes at affordable levels.
10:45:57
We will have income restricted units for them, and that's also great.
10:46:00
For the average person moving to New York, they can hop on 3 DZ and we can they can find a home that way.
10:46:06
We will simply never subsidize our way out of a demand problem.
10:46:09
And right now, there is simply not enough supply for how many people wanna live here.
10:46:13
We need to build more homes, where our rents will keep going up.
10:46:17
We simply cannot end up in a world where we need income restricted housing for single people making $200,000 a year.
10:46:23
And the only way to do that is by building more housing and push rents down.
10:46:27
I look longingly at cities like Austin where they met and beat the demand and rents are falling, and I'm certain it can happen to us too if we passed the EBS.
10:46:36
I support every single proposal in this in this package.
UNKNOWN
10:46:40
Thank you.
10:46:40
The Times expired.
Samir Lavingia
10:46:41
Tariffs impact me and my family.
Kevin C. Riley
10:46:43
Thank you so much.
