NY governor approves another $300M for NYC affordable housing

Dive Brief:

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has approved the issuance of a further $300 million in tax-exempt federal bonds to subsidize new and existing affordable housing in the New York City, Gothamist reported.
The move raises the amount of state-allocated bonding authority for the city to $771 million in 2016, the most in a decade, which is expected to produce 6,000 units.
Last year, the city was only given $90 million in such bonds for the fall allotment, though officials were expecting $230 million. The difference, they said, took 1,200 projects offline.

Dive Insight:

This latest allocation of affordable housing bonds in New York City comes as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio attempts to deliver on his plans to provide 200,000 new or existing affordable housing units over the next 10 years.

That goal was helped earlier this month when the Real Estate Board of New York and state and union officials struck a deal to revive a tax break requiring developers on projects in the city to earmark 20% of their units for low- to moderate-income tenants. The 421-a program grants more than $1 billion annually in tax cuts and the new deal is forecast to edge that abatement higher, from 20 years to 35 years.

The measures are aimed at tackling a housing affordability crisis facing New York City residents in the wake of surging home prices and increasing rents.

A recent study by the City of New York Institute for State and Local Governance noted that more than 1 million residents there spend more than half of their income on rent with “vast” inequity experienced by groups including minorities, individuals with disabilities, immigrants and the LGBTQ community.

Other U.S. cities — and those on the West Coast, in particular — are facing greater demand for affordable housing as home prices and rents there rise. Some have recently approved measures to spur development.

Among them, Portland, OR, is attempting to address its own gap of more than 23,000 affordable housing units with voters there approving a $258.4 million bond earlier this month to fund the construction of 1,300 such units. San Francisco recently raised requirements of residential developers to make 25% of a project’s units affordable, up from 12% previously.

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