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TESTIMONY

Eustacia Smith from West Side Federation for Senior and Supportive Housing on City of Yes for Housing and need for additional senior housing incentives

9:52:38

·

3 min

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Eustacia Smith, representing the West Side Federation for Senior and Supportive Housing (WSFSH), expresses strong support for the City of Yes for Housing initiative while emphasizing the need for additional measures to protect and increase affordable senior housing. Smith highlights the disproportionate impact of the housing crisis on older New Yorkers and the urgent need for deeply affordable units.

  • Supports Universal Affordability Preference, zoning changes to allow affordable housing citywide, and development of small shared housing
  • Calls for additional incentives specifically for senior housing development to prevent it from being overshadowed by general affordable housing
  • Recommends setting annual production goals, including at least 1,000 new deeply affordable senior housing units with funded services per year
  • Support for City of Yes for Housing Opportunity zoning changes
  • Need for affordable senior housing in New York City
  • Disproportionate impact of housing crisis on older New Yorkers
  • Support for universal affordability preference
  • Support for changing outdated zoning regulations
  • Support for development of small shared housing
  • Need for additional incentives for senior housing development
  • Call for city to set annual production and preservation goals for affordable senior housing
  • Recommendation for at least 1000 new units of deeply affordable senior housing with fully funded services per year
  • Importance of protecting and prioritizing production of deeply affordable senior housing with services

[EXPERIMENTAL]

Which elements of City of Yes for Housing Opportunity were discussed in this testimony?

  • UAP
  • Small and Shared Housing

The following are AI-extracted quotes and reasoning about which elements of the proposal were discussed in this testimony.

This is a quick, close approximation. Occasionally, the connection between a testimony's transcript and specific elements of City Planning's proposal is tenuous.

Read about this AI-generated analysis here.

UAP

"We support universal affordability preference because it won't mean additional affordable and port of housing would be built by giving developments of density bonus."

This quote directly mentions and expresses support for the Universal Affordability Preference, which is a key element of the City of Yes For Housing Opportunity proposal.

Small and Shared Housing

"We support the aspects of City of Yes that would allow for the development of small shared housing, which could significantly increase housing apply, but our experience running that kind of housing has shown that it must be paired with adequately funded on-site services."

This quote directly mentions and expresses support for the small and shared housing aspect of the City of Yes proposal, which is a key element of the plan.

About this analysis:

This analysis is done by AI that reasons whether or not a quote from the testimony discusses a particular element of the proposal.

All the prompts and data are open and available on Github.

You can search for testimonies that mentioned a specific element in the table on the main meeting page.

When an element is explicitly stated in the testimony (e.g. "Universal Affordability Preference" or "UAP"), the analysis is accurate.

But the connection between a quote from the testimony and an element of the proposal is sometimes implicit.

In these cases, the AI might eagerly label a testimony as discussing a proposal when the connection is tenuous, or it might omit it entirely.

↗ Why are there transcription and diarization errors?
Eustacia Smith
9:52:38
I'm miss Stacia Smith from West Side Federation for Senior And Supportive Housing, also called Wish fish.
9:52:44
Thank you to the commission for the opportunity to testify.
9:52:47
Wish fish develops, operates and provides services for low income senior supportive housing in New York City as we have done for nearly 50 years.
9:52:55
New York City's housing crisis weighs disproportionately on older New Yorkers older New Yorkers are more presently low income than other groups.
9:53:03
They are the fastest growing group of homeless people.
9:53:05
The city's shelter system saw single adults sixty five and older more than double from 2014 to 2022.
9:53:12
Older New Yorkers are more likely to need deeply affordable housing.
9:53:16
According to data in a recent report by Livon, New York, there are over 520,000 people in New York City on waitlist for affordable senior housing.
9:53:26
And 57% of senior households on the housing connect wait list are extremely low income, meaning that housing them requires deeply affordable units.
9:53:36
Wish fish staff are themselves suffering in the housing crisis.
9:53:40
A growing number have experienced homelessness or have to commute several hours daily because it cannot afford to live in New York City.
9:53:48
New York City must take all possible measures to increase the supply of affordable housing which fish strongly supports the zoning changes outlined in City of Yes for Housing.
9:53:57
We also want to call for additional action by the city needed to protect incentives to specifically create senior affordable housing as City of Yes goes forward.
9:54:07
We support universal affordability preference because it won't mean additional affordable and port of housing would be built by giving developments of density bonus.
9:54:15
We support changing outdated zoning regulations that would allow for the creation of affordable housing in all neighborhoods and areas of the city rather than the situation we are in now.
9:54:26
There are senior households registered on housing connects from every community district in New York City.
9:54:31
They should be able to stay in their communities with affordable senior housing.
9:54:35
We support the aspects of City of Yes that would allow for the development of small shared housing, which could significantly increase housing apply, but our experience running that kind of housing has shown that it must be paired with adequately funded on-site services.
9:54:50
However, in addition to passing city of yes, New York City must take additional measures to dramatically expand affordable senior and supportive housing production The development of senior housing has long depended on air's incentives.
9:55:03
When City of Yes makes incentives apply to all affordable housing development, we will need additional in sensitive for senior housing.
9:55:10
Otherwise, developers will likely prefer to build general affordable housing that has a wider market but is not suitable for seniors.
9:55:18
We echo all of Livonia New York's recommendations in their recently released report how long do we have to wait, including that the city set annual production and preservation goals for affordable senior housing, including at least 1000 new units of deeply affordable senior housing with fully funded services per year.
9:55:35
Again, we say yes to city of yes, and New York City must also protect and prioritize the production of deeply affordable senior housing with services.

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