In shift, NYSAFAH supports another NYC zoning proposal
After initially withholding support for a key New York City zoning proposal until more details were revealed, the New York State Association for Affordable Housing is now getting behind the plan, a top priority of the de Blasio administration.
The trade group, which represents private and non-profit developers, lenders and investors, changed course after deciding the information it was seeking about the Mandatory Inclusionary Housing proposal was irrelevant amid the “housing crisis” seizing the boroughs.
“We have a crisis on our hands, and this is a good way to better use scarce resources in terms of subsidy,” Jolie Milstein, NYSAFAH’s president and CEO, said on Tuesday. “Because, by allowing the market rate to offset some of the cost of the affordable housing that will get built in the middle tiers, it will allow us to address deeper subsidies for lower incomes elsewhere and with other incentive programs.”
If approved, the initiative would permit denser development but require that it include “permanently” affordable units. MIH would use three templates, which would require various portions of a project be reserved for families earning an average of either 60, 80 or 120 percent of the area median income.
Milstein had told City & State in December that the organization was not ready to take a position on the Mandatory Inclusionary Housing proposal. At the time, she said NYSAFAH was waiting for the administration to explain how formulas would be used to reach the average income requirement in the affordable portion of projects.
“It’s difficult for this industry association to support that kind of vague proposal,” Milstein said at the time. “In theory - excellent idea - mandatory inclusionary seems to be the way that most high-cost cities are going. And it works to a greater or lesser degree based on the particulars, and we haven’t seen the particulars. So we’re looking forward to working with the city to give them feedback once we know those details.”
On Tuesday, however, NYSAFAH announced it was supporting Mandatory Inclusionary Housing, in addition to the Zoning for Quality and Affordability proposal it previously backed. The Zoning for Quality and Affordability measure includes several tweaks meant to promote more modern mixed-income housing near mass transit and a spectrum of senior facilities.
Milstein said the organization initially focused on Zoning for Quality and Affordability because it was based on several of the trade association’s suggestions and NYSAFAH was familiar with it. After further discussion with its members, NYSAFAH decided the particulars about which income levels would be accommodated in MIH were less relevant.
“The detail of exactly who, what the income levels would be within those larger gradients was something we were hoping to have a more particular conversation about,” Milstein said, “but that really is of minimal impact in the larger scheme of addressing the housing crisis.”