Black, Latino & Asian Caucus weighs in on mayor’s affordable housing plan

With new leaders at its helm, the New York City Council’s Black, Latino, and Asian Caucus released a memo outlining principles that it wants integrated into a zoning proposal that is key to the mayor’s affordable housing agenda.

City Councilman Ritchie Torres, who now co-chairs the caucus with City Councilman Robert Cornegy Jr., said the 25-member group decided to weigh in on the zoning proposal –  and the larger housing agenda –  because the Council is expected to vote on it within weeks and because the issue is critical to the caucus’ constituents.

The move is the beginning of the caucus acting as a more vocal force at City Hall, Torres added.

“It is a matter of urgency. It is a matter on which the Council is deliberating and will ultimately decide within a matter of weeks,” Torres said. “It’s an issue that has profound implications for communities of colors. There are few issues that are as important to communities of color as the affordability of our city. And third, the BLAC Caucus, with its new leadership, is intent on becoming a much more visible and vocal advocate for communities of color. So this is only the beginning.”

The New York City Council Progressive Caucus has also released a policy platform on the mayor’s zoning proposals.

Most of the principles relate to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing proposal, a zoning amendment that would permit larger buildings in future land use decisions, but require that a portion of the units created be permanently reserved for low- or moderate-income New Yorkers.

The policy would be implemented using three models. One template would set aside a quarter of units for families with incomes averaging out to 60 percent of the area median income, or $47,000 for a family of three. Another would reserve 30 percent of a project for those with incomes averaging 80 percent of AMI. And the third option, available only outside the Manhattan core, would earmark 30 percent of a site for families earning 120 percent of the AMI on average.

The BLAC Caucus notes that the 60 percent AMI threshold “far exceeds what many Black, Latino and Asian families can afford,” and the first principle calls for reworking the formula so that a portion of the affordable homes are explicitly set aside for those earning 30 or 40 percent of AMI.

Torres said the 120 percent AMI option could be “exclusionary” to poor New Yorkers. Because this option provides for higher earners, BLAC’s second principle states that it should be revamped to reach deeper levels of affordability and foster economically diverse communities.

When developers are authorized to build the affordable units in a different location than a project’s market-rate housing, the caucus’s third principle argues that they should be required to house lower income residents in these units or to create more affordable units.

The administration’s housing officials said their framework is meant to be flexible enough for a range of real estate markets and neighborhoods – and that this approach will help prevent its policies from being scuttled in court. Still, housing officials have said the administration was willing to discuss using tiers to ensure that the average income targets are reached by incorporating homes for some of the poorest New Yorkers as well as making it more burdensome to build affordable units away from the market-rate portion of projects.

BLAC’s fourth and final principle urges the mayor to create a detailed plan on local hiring, labor standards, minority and women-owned business enterprises and infrastructure investments to “advance the principles of equity every bit as much as the housing itself.” The memo does not request that the group’s plan be tied to the Mandatory Inclusionary Housing proposal. The de Blasio administration maintains that it may not legally include labor provisions in the city’s zoning code.

Torres said the caucus’ membership make up for nearly half of the Council, and that they would ensure that such standards make it into a plan.

“As far as we are concerned, the conversation does not end with (Mandatory Inclusionary Housing),” Torres said. “We will continue to insist on a greater emphasis on MWBEs, infrastructure, labor standards, local hiring, and in fact, at some point, the BLAC will request a meeting with the mayor himself to press these issues.”

You can read the full memorandum below: 

New York City Council Black, Latino & Asian Caucus MIH Principles