Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
TESTIMONY
Testimony by Craig Gurian from the Anti-Discrimination Center on housing segregation and fair housing remedies
1:16:21
·
6 min
Craig Gurian, Executive Director of the Anti-Discrimination Center, argues that New York City remains deeply segregated residentially, presenting data showing how affordable housing production and public housing are concentrated away from whiter, wealthier districts.
He identifies member deference as a primary driver of this inequity and a "fair housing disaster."
Gurian proposes charter changes to mandate more equitable housing distribution, such as expanding as-of-right affordable housing or applying multipliers to production targets in exclusionary districts, potentially combined with requiring a council supermajority to override City Planning Commission approvals for affordable projects.
- NYC exhibits significant residential segregation by race, with affordable and public housing concentrated in communities of color.
- Data shows 18 community districts are less than 5% Black, and 10 of the 14 council districts with the least affordable housing production (<50 units 2022-24) are also <5% Black.
- Lottery data reveals applicants overwhelmingly seek housing outside their home community district (~85% apply outside 75% of the time).
- Gurian calls member deference a "fair housing disaster" and proposes remedies like targeted as-of-right allowances or weighted production targets for exclusionary areas.
- He suggests requiring a council supermajority (e.g., two-thirds) to block affordable housing projects approved by City Planning.
Craig Gurian
1:16:21
Good evening.
1:16:21
My name is Craig Gurion.
1:16:23
I've been a civil rights lawyer since 1988 and since 02/2003, the executive director of the Anti Discrimination Center.
1:16:31
I'm one of the few lawyers in New York City whose consistent focus has been on housing discrimination and housing segregation.
1:16:38
And housing segregation is where I'd like to keep the focus.
1:16:42
I've been a principal drafter of the structural amendments that make the human rights law what it is today, starting with the comprehensive 1991 amendments, continuing with the 2,005 Local Civil Rights Restoration Act and including a series of twenty sixteen amendments to broaden the law and protect it from federal rollback.
1:17:01
I've taught the history, demographics, law, and remedies of housing discrimination and housing segregation and invented and brought the landmark federal lawsuit against Westchester County that brought the concept of affirmatively furthering fair housing back from the dead.
1:17:17
It pains me to say that while the depth of the pathology is not as deep as it was decades ago, New York City does very much still run on residential segregation.
1:17:31
That segregation remains, among other things, the backbone of our politics, our educational system, and our delivery of health care.
1:17:40
Diverse New York City is 20.2% black non Hispanic overall.
1:17:46
It has 59 community districts.
1:17:49
But in 18 of those districts, the black non Hispanic population is less than 5%, and 11 of those 18 less than 3%.
1:17:59
Where is affordable housing being built?
1:18:02
Looking at the 51 city council districts, 14 of those districts had fewer than 50 units built in the period from '22 to 'twenty four.
1:18:12
By contrast, there were more than 1,000 units in each of nine council districts.
1:18:17
Of those 14 lowest producers, 10 have black non Hispanic populations of less than 5%.
1:18:24
How about where public housing is located?
1:18:28
15 council districts have more than a hundred NYCHA locations.
1:18:32
But in the 14 lowest producing districts for affordable housing, Seven apparently have zero NYCHA residential addresses.
1:18:40
Another has but one, and two have only 10.
1:18:42
So the pattern is really unmistakable.
1:18:46
Any serious effort in the direction of fair housing must tackle those disparities head on.
1:18:52
And one last preliminary point, there are unique and critically important data that were obtained in the happily now resolved lawsuit, brought against the city for its outsider restriction policy in affordable housing lotteries where community district incumbents had preference for 50% of the units.
1:19:13
We gathered data on millions of lottery applications made by several hundred thousand unique households.
1:19:20
And it turned out that whether the household was Asian, Hispanic, black, or white, approximately 85% of the unique applicants, about 85%, applied for housing outside of their community district at least 75% of the time.
1:19:39
Thus, there's a huge gap between what you hear from hyper local advocates who proclaim the importance of maintaining the status quo and the choices actual New York families are seeking to make.
1:19:52
So in two minutes, what's to be done?
1:19:56
I've sketched a wide ranging variety of proposals in the document that I've circulated to you going far beyond what I have an opportunity to talk about right now.
1:20:07
I'm happy to take questions about that.
1:20:09
As others have told you, member deference has been a fair housing disaster here and everywhere else.
1:20:16
It has existed.
1:20:17
The question isn't whether to get rid of it, but how.
1:20:20
City Of Yes took some important steps but faltered, especially when it comes to the most exclusionary neighborhoods that have built lease.
1:20:27
The fair housing framework is also important, but lacks any mechanism for enforcement of targets.
1:20:33
The most concrete solution means tangibly reducing the council's ability to block affordable housing construction.
1:20:42
So, one specific thing that would apply from a fair housing lens would be expanding beyond City Of Yes, the scope of affordable housing permitted as of right in districts that remain highly segregated on at least one dimension, especially given our history districts with a disproportionately low percentage of black non Hispanic residents.
1:21:06
Two, lag significantly in affordable housing units built.
1:21:12
And three, have disproportionately few housing units.
1:21:16
It could also mean applying a multiplier to the housing production targets in the Fair Housing plan to those districts that are most segregated and least contributing.
1:21:29
It may be that the commission would prefer an alternative or supplemental solution that is more case by case with city planning approval required and where the giving of that, approval is dispositive absent an override by a two thirds supermajority of the council within thirty days.
1:21:55
One final thought very quickly.
1:21:58
You can't solve the city's affordable housing and fair housing crises without recognizing the regional element.
1:22:07
Suburban exclusionary zoning and segregation has been intense and unrelenting for decades.
1:22:15
Look at the percentage of households in the five surrounding suburban counties with household income below $35,000 a year, 13% of households.
1:22:27
New York City, Twenty Five Point Seven Percent, essentially double.
1:22:34
Yet no one is currently tasked with trying to vindicate the city's fair housing interest in suburbs taking on their fair share of affordable housing production, an interest which conveniently is remediable not only under federal law but under state law as well.
1:22:54
So I'd be happy to take any questions you have now now or later on the broader document.