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TESTIMONY
Testimony by Simeon Bankoff from the Campaign for a Livable City on preserving affordable housing stock
3:10:47
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3 min
Simeon Bankoff testifies on behalf of the Campaign for a Livable City, advocating for preserving existing affordable housing alongside encouraging thoughtful new development.
He highlights the loss of rent-stabilized units through demolition and proposes charter changes to require 1-to-1 replacement of demolished units in new construction (with a look-back period) and impose demolition fees earmarked for affordable housing within the same community district.
He also supports related initiatives like land banking and right to counsel.
Simeon Bankoff
3:10:47
Hello.
3:10:49
I'm turning it up.
3:10:51
On.
3:10:51
Okay.
3:10:53
Hello.
3:10:53
I'm Simeon Bancroft, a historic preservation and community development consultant currently working with the campaign for a livable city.
3:11:00
Roberta Gratz will be coming up.
3:11:02
We'll talk he's the convener of this campaign, and we'll talk a little more about the campaign.
3:11:06
Thank you to the commission for giving us this opportunity to share our views.
3:11:09
As we are all aware and as we've discussed greatly, New York is in an affordable housing crisis.
3:11:14
The solution, we believe, is not to remove all regulations on development, but to encourage it to be done in a thoughtful, mindful manner.
3:11:21
Development may be appropriate in certain context, but we cannot forget the importance of the city that exists.
3:11:27
Preservation of our city keeps New Yorkers in their homes.
3:11:30
It keeps them connected to the essential amenities that make communities livable such as the network of parks, grocery stores, and reliable transportation that make a house a home, and we must ensure that these networks are kept in place.
3:11:41
Our proposals are aimed in ensuring that what we lose is fully replaced.
3:11:46
All too often, and Roberto will talk about this, we see tenants being forced out of their homes when we have the sites replaced with fewer units at a far higher price.
3:11:56
Removing essential affordable housing stock and replacing with fewer more profitable units is counter to the interest of the city, but currently our policies do nothing to stop it.
3:12:05
The rent guideline the rent guidelines board reports that since 02/2010, an average of seven twenty nine Class A buildings and 1,500 units of Class A housing have applied for demolition permits annually.
3:12:19
Additionally, since 1994, there have been estimated loss of over 150,000 rent stabilized units.
3:12:26
That's an average loss of over 5,000 rent stabilized units per year.
3:12:30
Even if only 10% of those units of the twin of the 1,500 units demolished were in some kind of rent stabilization replacing them, and only them would still add 750 units a year or cut the annual losses to rent stabilized apartments by 15%.
3:12:45
We propose that apartment buildings only approve construction permits if no apartments are lost.
3:12:51
To ensure that buildings are not demolished without a replacement plan, there should be a short look back period so that if the owner cares a building down, they can't get permits unless they build something with the same number of units or more that existed before the demolition.
3:13:05
Secondly, we proposed the city apply a demolition fee to projects where housing units will be lost.
3:13:10
Under our proposal, this fee would help to fray the cost of replacing those units within the community district where the building is located.
3:13:17
The fees would go into a capital reserve fund established specifically for that community district and the fees would and the funds would be used exclusively for affordable housing development.
3:13:27
Finally, we the campaign also supports the Community Land Act, land banking, and related bills, expanding the certificate of no, harassment programs to ensure, to ensure that New Yorkers can remain in their homes and enhancing the city's commitment to a right to counsel for tenants facing eviction through the permanent allocation of sufficient funding so that all low low income tenants facing eviction can have access to an attorney.
3:13:52
Thank you for your time.
3:13:53
It's much warmer up here than it isn't there.