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Q&A
Shanequa Charles discusses AMI reform and advocates for mixed-income development
2:17:53
·
4 min
Commissioner Shams DaBaron asks Shanequa Charles about the financial feasibility of developing deeply affordable housing (<40% AMI). Charles critiques the traditional Area Median Income (AMI) calculation for inappropriately inflating income levels in the Bronx but acknowledges recent legislative progress. She strongly advocates against building 100% low-income projects, arguing instead for mixed-income and mixed-use developments that are more financially sustainable and create more integrated communities with greater opportunities for residents.
- Charles supports recent reforms to Area Median Income (AMI) calculations to better reflect local realities.
- She argues against concentrating poverty through 100% low-income developments.
- Advocates for mixed-income housing models to improve financial feasibility and create more diverse, opportunity-rich environments.
- Suggests incorporating commercial space (mixed-use) can also help project sustainability.
Shams DaBaron
2:17:53
this could be for either one or two of you.
2:17:57
So you were talking about creating affordable housing for income levels based on the AMI that is at, I think you said, 40%.
2:18:09
Yes.
2:18:10
Okay.
2:18:11
So my question is, is it feasible to be able and how can we do it in terms of when we look at how to make the numbers work for developments and especially in our communities and stuff like that.
2:18:25
We definitely need the affordable housing.
2:18:28
We want to keep people in New York City.
2:18:31
And a lot of us do not make above certain AMI levels.
2:18:37
But when it comes to development, you know, do you have thoughts on how, especially in the terms of the charter, how we can do that, on scale throughout the city, in a way that that we can actually do the building, have it make sense financially, because there's a lot of cost to it, and make it sustainable.
2:19:01
And and and also, is there is there room for mixed income development to happen in communities throughout the city, which also delivers on those AMI levels that you said?
Shanequa Charles
2:19:16
Yeah, absolutely.
2:19:17
And I'm really grateful for that question because I think a lot of the times we I think we're creatures of habit just innately, and it feels more comfortable to stick around to what has been going on even when we figure out that it's ineffective.
2:19:32
So historically, how the AMI has worked, particularly for Bronx sites, and I'm advocating for Bronx sites because I am a Bronx site, okay?
2:19:39
Shout out to The Bronx.
2:19:41
We're in The Bronx tonight, so a shout out to The Bronx, okay?
2:19:46
We have not considered that that AMI is inappropriately reflecting incomes that don't exist.
2:19:55
Right?
2:19:55
So the average median income as it as it priorly stood for our particular area included communities who are upwards 250,000, 3 hundred thousand a year in income standing next to folks who are making 17,000 to 20,000 a year in income, which is the neighborhood that you all are sitting in right now where people are choosing between food and rent.
2:20:22
And the adjustment in the AMI, one, for the percentage of the AMI where we're building at has to make sense not only for the tenants, the Bronx sites, but it also needs to make sense, obviously, for the people who are building.
2:20:38
Let's not ignore that fact.
2:20:42
So some of the things that I believe also address making it make sense for all parties is to create multiuse multiuse dwellings.
2:20:53
First of all, if we're creating something that's a % affordable, this is like saying do we have any swimmers?
2:20:59
Do you guys swim?
2:21:00
Who's a swimmer on the panel?
2:21:02
Anybody swim?
2:21:03
You guys are not swimmers?
2:21:04
You don't wanna swim?
2:21:05
You ain't never swim.
2:21:06
Alright.
2:21:07
So if you don't know how to swim, my question is, how do we learn how to swim?
2:21:11
It's by being near other swimmers.
2:21:13
And so what has been happening historically is that folks come into our communities because there is a low voter turnout, and it is a food desert, and the health care system is impacted by all of those different things, and there's rentership and not ownership.
2:21:29
And they clump all of the non swimmers together as non swimmers, and nobody learns how to swim.
2:21:36
Right?
2:21:36
But if we think and we reimagine what affordable housing looks like moving forward, we're thinking mixed use.
2:21:45
We're thinking commercial space that helps sustain building.
2:21:48
We're thinking percentage of affordable housing, percentage of market rate, so that people actually have an opportunity to maybe learn the things that they didn't learn that also pull us up by the bootstraps, I guess.
2:22:03
But to more specifically answer the question, I think that we need to move away from models that are 100% anything, because that doesn't help the community as a whole when we're still in the same community together.
2:22:17
Did that answer the question?