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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Emily Goldstein, Director of Organizing and Advocacy at Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development (ANHD)
5:26:48
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Emily Goldstein from ANHD testified on several key points related to housing in New York City, focusing on funding for community-based organizations, preservation of affordable housing, and allocation of resources for extremely low-income households.
- Requested support for the Community Housing Preservation Strategies Initiative, urging an increase in funding to $4,950,000 for the coming fiscal year
- Asked for support to maintain ANHD's work, particularly the Displacement Alert Project and capacity building training
- Emphasized the importance of focusing resources on preserving existing affordable housing
- Encouraged increasing the percentage of capital housing dollars going to extremely low-income (ELI) level housing
Emily Goldstein
5:26:48
Good afternoon.
5:26:50
Thank you, Chair Sanchez, for all of the work you do to help support for housing in New York City.
5:26:55
My name's Emily Goldstein.
5:26:57
I'm the director of organizing and advocacy at the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development, or ANHD.
5:27:02
On a few points, we'll submit a much longer testimony.
5:27:05
First, I'd like to ask for the council's support for the Community Housing Preservation Strategies Initiative.
5:27:12
This initiative provides over 45 community based organizations with funding for their tireless work to protect low income homeowners and tenants from displacement.
5:27:23
We urge the council to take action by addressing contracting backlog crisis in this, as in so many other places, and to increase funding to $4,950,000 for the coming fiscal year.
5:27:36
The funding for this program has been static since 2016 and significantly increases needed to maintain staff and maintain programming.
5:27:45
Second, we ask your support to maintain ANAHD's own work, particularly for the displacement alert project and our capacity building training and technical assistance related to the previous program.
5:27:57
These are tools we provide for the broader affordable housing community to help to ensure that data and resources are accessible.
5:28:05
Third, quickly want to emphasize, as others have mentioned, the importance of focusing resources on preservation.
5:28:13
Our non profit affordable housing providers are in crisis with escalating operation costs and mounting rent arrears.
5:28:20
We need to be putting more of our capital dollars into preserving our existing affordable housing.
5:28:26
Fourth, also wanna really encourage that the council work with the city to increase the percentage of capital housing dollars going to the ELI, extremely low income level.
5:28:41
In 2024, only 16% of housing completions and 21% of housing starts were at this level, even though 35% of renter households and 58% of rent burdened households
Kenny Margarito Alvarez
5:28:53
Thank you.
5:28:53
Time to spy.
Emily Goldstein
5:28:54
Thank you.