The History of Affordable Housing in NYC The affordable housing crisis in NYC. How can NYC incentivize relationships with developers, public and private partnerships to build affordable housing & upgrade and manage public housing?

1. Case Study: The History of Affordable Housing in New York City
Rahsaan Browne Spring 2022
I. The History of NYC Tenement Homes
II. Tenement Housing Acts of 1867 & 1901
III. NYCHA:1934
IV. The Federal Housing Acts: 1937/1949
V. Redlining:1938
VI. The Mitchell-Lama housing program:1955
VII. The Nehemiah Housing Opportunity Program:1980
VIII. Broken Window Theory & Policing-1990s
IX. Gentrification
X. NYC’s Affordable Housing income guidelines
XI. Housing today in NYC
XII. Conclusion/Recommendations Implementations
XIII. Works Cited

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The History of Affordable Housing in New York City
This case study examines the history associated with affordable housing in New York City (NYC), the
NYC housing acts, tenements, the history of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), several
types of affordable housing programs, redlining, broken window policing, and gentrification in the
sections ahead. In general, affordable housing in New York City has been defined as, housing that costs
one-third or less of a household's income and is regulated in such a way that the rent cannot rise
dramatically over time. My case study will examine the history of affordable housing or lack thereof in
New York City. Progressive housing policies in NYC began with housing reformers and philanthropists
wanting to improve the living circumstances of the working poor, not with affordability. If anyone
knows the terrain of Manhattan it’s built on Schist rock and landfilled marshland, both of which present
unique challenges when being developed.
Affordable housing is built by either non-profit or for-profit developers. The housing policies of New
York City have been created by a commitment to activist government and progressive social policies. In
the 1880s, photojournalist Jacob Riis took photos that alerted the public to the tenement's unsanitary
state. The public's response to his efforts prompted the first governmental housing intervention, but it
was housing reformers and philanthropists wanting to improve the living circumstances of the working
poor, not necessarily concerned with affordability.
Alfred Tredway White was one of these people; he built the Home Structures in Cobble Hill (1877), the
Warren Place working cottages (1878), and the Tower buildings in Brooklyn (1879). Open space,
sunlight, improved ventilation, fire safety precautions, and separate rooms were among the building's
characteristics, setting a new standard for tenement life. People would be surprised at what affordable
housing looks like.
When the government’s commitment to public housing waned in the 1970s, everyday New Yorkers
became more involved and became creative with affordability. And it has been that way until now.
Much of what happens in New York City involves both the public and private sectors. It was recognized
that there were more creative ways to encourage developers to build affordable housing.
1. Nancy Steinke, “Cobble Hill Historic District Designation Report,” Cobble Hill Historic District
Designation Report (NYC.Gov, 1969)

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The History of NYC Tenement Homes
The evolution of tenement design, from Pre-Law to Old Law to New Law, an illustration from the Tenement House Commission Report of
1895. NYC Municipal Library.
Many of the wealthier people of New York City began to migrate north in the first part of the nineteenth
century, some transported their old homes or sometimes left their low-rise brick row homes behind.
Simultaneously thousands of newly arrived immigrants seeking a better life in the “New World” began
to swarm into America's cities. Groups of newcomers from every ethnicity flocked to places like the
Lower East Side, NYC. "Tenement" was a name for housing where the city’s urban poor lived towards
the end of the Civil War, usually implying a dangerous and unsanitary living environment. There were
more than 15,000 tenement buildings in New York City alone, not including the Bronx, Brooklyn,
Queens, or Staten Island, with the city's population approaching one million inhabitants quickly.
The population quadrupled per decade from the 1800s to the 1880s. Buildings that had originally been
single-family houses were increasingly converted into various living quarters to serve the growing
population in New York City. According to existing city regulations at the time, a traditional tenement
building was built five to seven stories tall with no setback and was (usually 25 feet wide and 100 feet
long). Many tenements started as single-family homes, and many older properties were converted into
tenements by adding stories on top of or expanding the backyards. Little air and light would emit and
there was less than a foot of space between buildings leading to unsafe living conditions.
“While New York City underwent major developments in the 300 years between European settlement
and World War I, it wasn’t until the early 1900s that Manhattan saw a major surge in demand for
housing. In the 30 years prior, Upper Manhattan had transitioned amidst the farmland, marshland, and
schist rock hills into single-family houses, tenements, and apartment buildings. With the population
peaking at around 2.3 million in 1910, the average price per square foot of a Manhattan apartment was a
mere $8 and average rents at that time were about $40 a month.”
2. Medium.Com Nycrec, “A Brief History of New York City's Real Estate Market,” Medium (Medium,
September 27, 2018

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With magnified inequalities growing between the upper and lower ends of the socioeconomic scale,
the relationship between housing and social class quickly became intertwined. Rapid expansion in
New York City, as well as the imposition of the New York City Street grid in 1811, had a significant
impact on the appearance, density, and availability of housing for all New Yorkers. The Manhattan
Street grid permitted lots that were 25 feet by 100 feet, and tenements frequently took up around
90% of these lots, leaving little area for natural light or air shafts. Buildings that did not take up the
full lot sometimes had "back tenements" erected into the yards behind them, which were far worse
than the apartments in the buildings that fronted the streets. It was all exceedingly dense, congested,
and unregulated conditions that bred sickness and horrible living conditions, which drew social
reformers to act. In 1849, a cholera pandemic claimed the lives of 5,000 individuals, many of whom
were impoverished people living in overcrowded tenements.
Tenement Housing Acts of 1867 & 1901
Affordable housing has always been a prominent issue in New York City. New York State passed the
Tenement House Law on May 14th,
1867. This was the nation's first comprehensive housing reform law.
The tenement house act for the first time legally defined a tenement and set important construction
regulations. It established standards for minimum room size, ventilation, and sanitation. It required fire
escapes and at least one toilet or privy (usually outside) for every twenty inhabitants. The population
increased by approximately 600 percent between 1820 and 1860, from 123,706 to 813,699. Imagine the
difficulty of swiftly constructing that much housing with only rudimentary technology.
Immigrants in New York City had little options but to crowd into tenements. They established squatters'
shacks in underdeveloped places like Kips Bay and Murray Hill uptown. The shacks were not inspected
or legislated like the tenements since they were deemed unlawful and temporary therefore, very little
official documentation exist. They did, however, emerge often in newspapers during this period,
primarily due to of fires or murders.
The New York Tenement House Department was created in 1901 to enforce new building standards and
document safety and health violations in New York City's overcrowded multi-family dwellings. The old
one and two-story “Knickerbocker” style dwellings with a large backyard on a 90-foot lot were
transformed into cut-up tenements often housing a 10-member household in a single apartment.
Outdated building designs, shabby construction, and greed-fueled attempts to cram as many people as
possible into the tenements became the norm. What followed was known as the “packing box” tenement
with almost no ventilation and a tiny yard. Riis described this design as “a hopeless back-to-back type,
which meant there was no ventilation and could be none.” He noted that allowed “stenches from
horribly foul cellars” to “poison” tenants living on the fifth floor. Next came the double-decker” with a
small air shaft. The state report called the double-decker “an evil which is peculiarly our own” and “the
one hopeless form of tenement construction.” Though a slight improvement on the packing box, “the
double-decker cannot be well-ventilated; it cannot be well-lit; it’s not safe in case of fire.”
3 Encylopedia.Com. “Tenement House Act.” Encyclopedia Britannica, May 23, 2018.

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NYCHA:1934
Harlem River Houses was one of the first federally financed public housing developments in the country. The New York Times
The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) was created in 1934 as the current Mayor Fiorello H.
LaGuardia's solution to the Great Depression-era housing crisis in New York City. The city's urban
environment was transformed because of the rapid building of huge developments. Public housing was
heralded as a progressive government's responsibility. For the first time in the city’s history, the agency
used the developments to practice slum clearance and establish a model for affordable housing. During
the first four years of operation and for the first time, the agency used Federal funds to construct public
housing in New York City as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal" social program.
The First Houses, located on Manhattan's Lower East Side, were NYCHA's first development. The city
acquired the plot of land on which the residences were built led by Vincent Astor, and eminent domain
was utilized to secure the other property. The First Houses, on the other hand, were built by renovating
existing apartment buildings, which proved to be too expensive.
Harlem River in 1937 and Williamsburg in 1938 were the first two "vertically constructed" projects built
by NYCHA. Both buildings are noteworthy for their art-deco architecture, which is uncommon even
today in public housing. These projects at the time were separated by race, with Harlem River being a
blacks-only neighborhood and Williamsburg being a whites-only neighborhood.
After WWII, the Housing Authority grew in popularity as part of Robert Moses' ambition to demolish
decrepit tenements and transform New York into a new metropolis. Later in life, Moses expressed
dissatisfaction with how the public housing system had deteriorated and fallen into disrepair. Between
1945 and 1965, the bulk of NYCHA complexes was constructed. Unlike most cities, New York
depended heavily on city and state funds to build its housing after the Federal Housing Act of 1937.

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NYCHA was created to address the city’s ongoing affordable housing crisis by offering public
assistance along with housing.
4. Sadurní, Luis Ferré. The Rise and Fall of New York Public Housing: An Oral History. The New York
Times, July 9, 201.
The Federal Housing Acts: 1937/1949
As Governor of New York, Franklin Roosevelt was concerned with housing issues, and he brought his
support for housing reform to the federal level when he was elected President in 1932.
The Homeowner’s Loan Corporation (HOLC) was created in 1933 to provide mortgage relief to
homeowners at risk of losing their homes through foreclosure. The HOLC also developed a
comprehensive housing plan that served as the basis for the National Housing Act of 1934. This law
created the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insured banks, mortgage companies, and other
lenders, thereby encouraging the construction of new homes and the repair of existing structures.
But there was fierce political opposition to low-cost public housing for low-income Americans
(especially black and brown Americans). Landlords and the real estate industry believed that the rental
and sales markets would be undercut by cheaper public housing. Fiscal conservatives in Congress were
afraid of the budgetary impact of a costly public housing program. And many Congressmen from more
rural parts of the country feared that such a program would help cities instead of smaller communities.
Both the Act of 1934 and the Act of 1937 were influenced by American housing reformers of the period,
with Catherine Bauer Wurster chief among them. Again, social housing reformers of the day were able
to sway political opinion.
On September 1, 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the United States Housing Act (the
"Wagner-Steagall Act") into law. The law stated, “To provide financial assistance to state and local
governments for the elimination of unsafe and unsanitary housing conditions, for the eradication of
slums, for the provision of decent, safe, and sanitary dwellings for low-income families, and the
reduction of unemployment and stimulation of business activity, and other purposes,".
5. FDR LIBRARY.ORG. “FDR and Housing Legislation,” n.d. https://www.fdrlibrary.org/housing.

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Redlining:1938
1938 Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) redlining maps of New York City
In the 1960s, sociologist John McKnight originally coined the term to describe the
discriminatory banking practice of classifying certain neighborhoods as “hazardous,” or not worthy of
investment due to the racial makeup of their residents. During the heyday of redlining, areas most
frequently discriminated against were Black and Brown inner-city neighborhoods. This newly formed
FHA developed the policy of redlining, the refusal to loan money or allow minorities to purchase homes
in white neighborhoods, and the inclusion of racial covenants in property deeds. In a 1939 FHA report,
Chief Land Economist Hoyt argued that segregation was an obvious necessity and that racially mixed
neighborhoods result in decreased land values. Hoyt also published a list of racial groups and ranked
them from positive to a negative influence on property values: “1. English, Scotch, Irish, Scandinavians,
2. North Italians, 3. Bohemians or Czechs, 4. Poles, 5. Lithuanians, 6. Greeks, 7. Russians, Jews (lower
class), 8. South Italians, 9. Negroes, 10. Mexicans.” The FHA subsequently justified the practice
of redlining to the public by claiming that a purchase of a home by a black person in a white
neighborhood would cause the value of the white-owned properties to decline, making their owners
more likely to default on their mortgages.
In 1935, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB) asked the Homeowners’ Loan Corporation
(HOLC) to look at 239 cities and create “residential security maps” to indicate the level of security for

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real-estate investments in each surveyed city. On the maps, the newest areas—those considered
desirable for lending purposes—were outlined in green and known as “Type A”. These were typically
affluent suburbs on the outskirts of cities. “Type B” neighborhoods, outlined in blue, were considered
“Still Desirable”, whereas older “Type C” were labeled “Declining” and outlined in yellow. “Type D”
neighborhoods were outlined in red and were considered the riskiest for mortgage support. While about
85% of the residents of such neighborhoods were white, they included most of the African American
urban households.
These neighborhoods tended to be the older districts in the center of cities; often they were also African
American neighborhoods. Urban planning historians theorize that the maps were used by private and
public entities for years afterward to deny loans to people in black communities. But, recent research has
indicated that the HOLC did not redline in its lending activities and that the racist language reflected the
bias of the private sector and experts hired to conduct the appraisals.
“Though redlining really originated back in the 1930s and has since been declared by courts to be
an illegal racist practice, its lasting impacts can still be seen in cities across the country, including New
York. In 2018, the New Economy Project reported that banks and other mortgage lenders were
significantly more likely to deny loan applications as the percentage of black or Latino residents in the
New York City Neighborhoods increased. The organization also published a series of maps that
highlight banks’ failure to locate branches in communities of color. Their research found that banks and
other mortgage lenders denied black applicants more than twice as often as white applicants (26% over
12%). Further, there are similar denial rate disparities for New Yorkers looking to refinance an existing
mortgage (lenders deny 53% of black, 44% of Latino, and 40% of Asian New Yorkers, compared to
30% of white New Yorkers).”
6. Michael, Blake. “THE LASTING EFFECTS OF REDLINING ON NEW YORK CITY RESIDENTS.”
Fordham Environmental Law Review. Fordham law, January 20, 2021.

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The Mitchell-Lama housing program:1955
(101 Clark St., one of two buildings that make up Cadman Towers, a Mitchell-Lama development in Brooklyn Heights, at the
foot of the Brooklyn Bridge.)
The Mitchell–Lama Housing Program was sponsored by New York State Senator MacNeil Mitchell and
Assemblyman Alfred Lama. It was signed into law in 1955 as The Limited-Profit Housing Companies
Act. The program's purpose was the development and building of affordable housing, both rental and co-
operatively owned units, for middle-income residents. Under this program, local jurisdictions acquired
properties by eminent domain and provided them to developers to develop housing for low- and middle-
income tenants. Developers received tax abatements as long as they remained in the program, and low-
interest mortgages, subsidized by the federal, state, or New York City government. They were also
guaranteed a 6% or, later, 7.5% return on investment each year. The program was based on
the Morningside Gardens housing cooperative, a co-op in Manhattan's Morningside
Heights neighborhood that was subsidized with tax money.
Like traditional co-ops, Mitchell-Lama homeowners are considered shareholders in the cooperative that
owns the building and do not own the physical unit outright. Similarly, the amount of shares a
homeowner has is determined by the size and location of the apartment within the building. Unlike
traditional co-ops, it is difficult to get a mortgage for Mitchell-Lama apartments. Banks are apprehensive
to lend because if buyers default, the foreclosure laws for these co-ops are murky. However, some
Mitchell-Lama developments have created their financing programs to combat this. Mitchell-Lama co-
ops are also considered limited-equity co-ops, meaning there’s a limit to the profit owners can make if
they sell the apartment. Since these were built as affordable housing, the program aims to keep
apartments below market rate. That said, if the developer opts out of the program and goes private,
apartment owners can stand to gain a windfall profit selling their units. It is celebrated as being one the

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most successful affordable housing programs created as it provided housing for those whose incomes are
too high to qualify for housing assistance, but not high enough to afford market rates. According to the
New York Post, nearly 20,000 co-op and rental Mitchell-Lama apartments have been converted to
market-rate since 1989. Despite the long waitlist and financing hurdles, the prospect of buying a home
for as little as $100k outweighs the inconvenience.
Unlike their co-op counterparts, Mitchell-Lama rentals have been leaving the program at a more rapid
pace. Roughly 55% of rental developments have been lost compared to just 11% of co-op developments
according to Cooperators United for Mitchell-Lama. In 2017 Mayor De Blasio pledged $250M to keep
15,000 Mitchell-Lama rentals from going market rate.
2020 Annual Report to the Legislature
Summary Based Upon 2019 Certified Financial Statements
All Mitchell-Lama DHCR Supervised Developments HPD Supervised Dissolved*
Developments Total Within NYC Outside NYC Developments Current Year
Project Data
Number of Projects 220 125 56 69 92 3
Number of Apartments 104,612 59,734 47,691 12,043 44,392 486
Number of Rental Rooms 468,647 265,022 217,257 47,765 201,471 2,154
Total Project Cost $3,174,827,761 $1,872,363,647 $1,554,734,788 $317,628,859 $1,289,246,157 $13,217,957
Total Mortgage Issued $2,953,694,866 $1,743,417,292 $1,444,544,906 $298,872,386 $1,197,866,171 $12,411,403
Amount of Annual Amortization $88,465,974 $53,676,330 $44,554,817 $9,121,513 $34,789,644 $0
Housing Subsidies
236 Subsidy, Annual Contract Amount $91,304,768 $61,743,490 $58,118,367 $3,625,123 $29,561,278 $0
Capital Grant, No. of Units 18 8 7 1 10 0
Rent Assistance Payments, No. of Units 522 0 0 0 522 0
Rent Supplements, No. of Units 375 108 0 108 255 12
Section 8, No. of Units 26,405 16,922 11,725 5,197 9,483 0
Sr. Citizen Rent Exemption, No. of Units 4,702 2,909 2,909 0 1,788 5
Disability Rent Exemption, No. of Units 381 208 208 0 173 0
Low Inc. Housing Tax Credits, No. of Units 13,261 13,039 7,253 5,786 222 0
Surcharge and Occupancy Rate
Surcharges Collected for the 12 Mo. Period $23,389,645 $9,160,105 $8,576,755 $583,350 $14,229,540 $0
Percentage of Apartments Occupied 97.2% 97.0% 97.9% 96.1% 97.6% 94.0%
* See Glossary for definition
Oct 21, 2020 — Content is based upon the financial statements provided by Mitchell-Lama. Housing Companies and
includes data and statistics on the housing ...
7. NYC.GOV. “Mitchell Lama Program.” Mitchell Lama Housing Program Information. NYC.GOV,
n.d. https. 2020.

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The Nehemiah Housing Opportunity Program:1980
Since the early 1980s, more than three thousand homes have been built under the Nehemiah housing plan. East Brooklyn Congregations
(EBC) for its construction of affordable two- and three-bedroom single-family houses.
The now-defunct nationwide federally funded program was modeled after a large, single-family
homeownership project sponsored by the East Brooklyn Churches in the East New York section of
Brooklyn, New York. The federal project produced homes for low-income homebuyers at an average
cost of less than $70,000 per home. The units were made affordable to purchasers in part through
$10,000 deferred-payment loans from the City of New York.
The national program offered competitively selected nonprofit organizations federal funding of up to
$15,000 per unit, which was used to provide interest-free second mortgage loans to first-time, low- and
moderate-income homebuyers. These funds are available to the nonprofit sponsor only after the closing
of a sale. No federal funds are provided under the program for the acquisition or development of sites.
Created by Congress as part of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1987, the Nehemiah
Housing Opportunities Grant Program had three primary goals:
 to increase homeownership among low and moderate-income households,
 to improve neighborhoods in cities across the country, and
 to increase employment in those neighborhoods.
The Nehemiah homes originally were the product of social issues being solved on a local level.
Grassroots efforts spearheaded by local churches and citizens (East Brooklyn Congregations) bonded
together to bring affordable housing to East New York and Brownsville in Brooklyn, NY. Dubbed the
“Nehemiah Plan” after the biblical prophet who rebuilt Jerusalem, its organizers sought to transform
neighborhoods whose deterioration matched that of the South Bronx as a national example of urban

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decay. Over the next three decades, the EBC oversaw the building of 4,500 homes, and during that time
Nehemiah homeowners did not experience a single foreclosure. Among many more costly and
struggling housing programs, the Nehemiah Plan was, according to a New York Times reporter in 2000,
“a hidden-in-plain-sight success story.”
The Nehemiah housing program intended to build “new” neighborhoods from the burned-out, rejected,
and abandoned 1970’s Brownsville and East New York communities and to give low to moderate-
income families a chance to become homeowners. The Nehemiah plan provided many low-income
families the opportunity to buy a beautiful new home, help rebuild these abandoned communities, give
this city a “face-lift”, and a new group of tax-paying and voting homeowners. Today, these Nehemiah
communities still boost well-maintained affordable single-family homes.
The local program still exists with a housing lottery currently open for Nehemiah Spring Creek, two
separate residential developments in East New York, Brooklyn. Developed by Nehemiah Housing
Development Fund Company, a non-profit housing affiliate for East Brooklyn Congregations in
partnership with Monadnock Development, the buildings in this phase yield a total of 214 rentals in a
mix of studios, one-, two-, and three-bedroom units the 214 apartments for residents with an eligible
income between $18,618 to $126,900, ranging from 30 to 90 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI).
The structures are part of a 45-acre development plan that brings a mix of retail, affordable apartment
rentals, and townhouse homeownership. The success of the Nehemiah program has caused a massive
rebuilding of Brownsville and East New York, which continues today.
8. Dennis Deslippe. “‘Citizen Power’ Rebuilds East Brooklyn: The Nehemiah Housing Plan In The
1980s.” gothamcenter.org. THE GOTHAM CENTER FOR NEW YORK CITY HISTORY, October 8,
2019.
Broken Window Theory & Policing-1990s
Source: Hinkle, J. C., & Weisburd, D. (2008). The irony of broken windows policing: A micro-place study of the relationship between disorder-
focused police crackdowns and fear of crime. Journal of Criminal Justice, 36(6), 503-512.
The broken windows theory states that any visible signs of crime and civil disorder, such as broken
windows (hence, the name of the theory) vandalism, loitering, public drinking, jaywalking, and
transportation fare evasion, create an urban environment that promotes even more crime and disorder
(Wilson & Kelling, 1982).

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The thought process was that policing these misdemeanors will help create an ordered and lawful
society in which all citizens feel safe and crime rates, including violent crime rates, are kept low. For
example, proponents of this theory would argue that a broken window signals to potential criminals that
a community is unable to defend itself against an uptick in criminal activity. It is not the literal broken
window that is a direct cause for concern, but more so the figurative meaning that is ascribed to this
situation.
It symbolizes a vulnerable and disjointed community that is not capable of handling crime – opening the
doors to all kinds of unwanted activity to occur. In neighborhoods that do have a strong sense of social
cohesion among their residents, these broken windows are fixed (both literally and figuratively), giving
these areas a sense of control over their communities.
There are several other fields in which the broken windows theory is implicated. The first is real estate.
Broken windows (and other similar signs of disorder) can be an indicator of low real estate value, thus
deterring investors (Hunt, 2015).
As such, some recommend that the real estate industry should adopt the broken windows theory to
increase value in an apartment, house, or even an entire neighborhood. By fixing windows and cleaning
up the area, they may increase in value (Harcourt & Ludwig, 2006). These same practices have been
implemented in areas once considered of low real estate value.
Consequently, this might lead to gentrification which we will discuss next as the process by which
poorer urban landscapes are changed as wealthier individuals move in. Although many would argue that
this might help the economy and provide a safe area for people to live, this often displaces low-income
families and prevents them from moving into areas that previously would have been affordable.
In New York City, previous Police commissioner William Bratton utilized this technique in urban
neighborhoods throughout the 5 boroughs. This is a very salient topic in the city as many of those
former “unsafe” areas are becoming gentrified because of these policies, and regardless of whether you
support this process or not, it is important to understand how the real estate industry is directly
connected to the broken windows theory.
9. Ruhl, Charlotte. The Broken Windows Theory. simplypschology.org, July 26, 2021.
Gentrification
Gentrification is a process in which a poor area such as a city, experiences an influx of middle-class or
wealthy people who renovate and rebuild homes and businesses, which often results in an increase in
property values and the displacement of earlier, usually poorer residents.
The New York metropolitan area has seen tremendous economic growth, but researchers have found
that many residents in rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods are struggling to afford to live in the 31-
county, tri-state region (University of California, Berkeley).

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The interactive Urban Displacement Project map, released today by a Berkeley team, graduate students
from New York University’s Center for Urban Science and Progress (NYU CUSP), and the Local
Initiatives Support Corporation’s (LISC) New York City office (LISC NYC), shows that 12% of low-
income neighborhoods are experiencing ongoing or advanced gentrification and an additional 9% are
experiencing displacement – households being forced to leave — without any gentrification at all. When
residents are displaced from New York City, they have few choices, since most of the suburbs have
gentrified and grown increasingly exclusionary toward low-income residents by not having low-income
or affordable housing. (USC Berkley, NYU CUSP)
“Our work shows that the housing affordability crisis is displacing low-income families throughout the
New York region, a pattern that is being replicated in other high-cost regions around the country,” says
UC Berkeley city and regional planning professor Karen Chapple.
With some caveats such as the time lag of census data in capturing population shifts and the challenges
with data reliability throughout all of the region’s neighborhoods, there were several key research
findings, including:
In 2016, more than one-third of low-income households lived in low-income neighborhoods at risk of or
already experiencing displacement and gentrification pressures, comprising 24 percent of the New York
metro area’s census tracts. Over 12% of neighborhoods in the region are gentrifying or in an advanced
state of gentrification defined as an increase in housing values or rents accompanied by an influx of
high-income, high-educated residents while almost 9% are experiencing displacement without
gentrification.
In 2018, 515 census tracts in the region were designated as Opportunity Zones under a program that
provides tax incentives for private investment in low-income urban areas. Twenty-three percent of the
tracts are located in gentrifying neighborhoods, and an additional thirty percent are in neighborhoods at
risk of gentrification.
There are 314 super-gentrified or exclusive neighborhoods in the metro region, forming a ring of very
high-income suburban and exurban communities around New York City, in addition to creating islands
of exclusion in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. Most of these have long been exclusive, but some 71
of these neighborhoods transitioned between 1990 and 2016 from low-income areas to areas where the
median household income, at $140,000 was greater than 200 percent of the regional median in 2016.
The rapid rise of incomes in these neighborhoods suggests that gentrification is no longer just a problem
for the urban core of New York City.
10. USC Berkley, NYU CUSP. “Mapping Displacement and Gentrification in the New York Metropolitan
Area.” Urban Displacement Project for the New York Metro Region. USC Berkley, NYU CUSP, 2016.
NYC’s Affordable Housing income guidelines

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2021 New York City Area AMI
Housing is considered affordable if it costs about one-third or less of what the people living there earn, also known as Area Median Income
(AMI).
For immigrants and low-income New Yorkers, affordable housing has long been a major political issue
in the city. But, with the city still struggling from the covid epidemic, the subject isn't without its
problems. Many people still worry if the city is doing enough to make housing more affordable and if
some of the available units are really “affordable”. Today many factors go into the calculations for
affordable housing below we will utilize NYC’s scale which factors income and family size to
determine affordability.
Area Median Income (AMI)
The median income for all cities across the country is defined each year by the U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The 2021 AMI for the New York City region is $107,400 for
a three-person family (100% AMI).
To determine who qualifies for a given affordable housing project, the city relies on Area Median Income. It’s defined each
year by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) (not the city of New York as many assume) using
data from the American Community Survey.
Affordable housing programs have a variety of income limits. When apartments are made available through a lottery, specific income levels
are indicated.
Once a developer decides what kind of development they want to pursue, they work with the city and
apply for a city-subsidized program. These programs range from ELLA (Extremely Low and Low-
Income and Affordability) to the Green Housing Preservation Program and include both new
construction and preservation.
Each program has its own set of rules that developers must follow to qualify for tax benefits. Some
buildings, for example, may be entirely affordable, but most developers are required to set aside a
specific percentage of residences for low- to moderate-income applicants.
Generally, the 80/20 rule is put into effect, meaning that at least 20% of apartments need to be
designated affordable. Simply put, the 80/20 program provides tax-exempt financing to rental
developers who reserve at least 20% of units for affordable housing. Inclusionary zoning “promotes
economic integration in areas of the city undergoing substantial new residential development by offering
an optional floor area bonus in exchange for the creation or preservation of affordable housing, on-site
or off-site, principally for low-income households,” according to the Department of City Planning.

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“Today affordable housing in NYC has income and credit requirements and is for various income
ranges. Applications are picked through a lottery system. When an applicant is chosen through the
lottery, they have made it to the next step of the process and must go to an interview to submit the
required documents. Being picked for an interview does not guarantee an apartment. NYC’s affordable
housing lotteries are for newly constructed or renovated buildings with subsidized apartments. To apply
online, visit NYC Housing Connect. The housing connect website contains lotteries from Housing
Preservation and Development (HPD) and Housing Development Corporation (HDC), 5% of
developments are set aside for tenants with mobility impairments and 2% are set aside for tenants with
visual and hearing disabilities. Income requirements start around $18,000+.”
Housing today in NYC
“Every New Yorker deserves a safe and affordable place to live, in a neighborhood that provides
opportunities to get ahead. The market alone is not always able to meet that need, and, accordingly,
governments at all levels must work together to help.” The former mayor Bill de Blasio had made
affordable housing a top priority of his administration and had committed the city to "build or preserve
nearly 200,000 affordable units and help both tenants and small landlords preserve the quality and
affordability of their homes."
During his tenure, major headway was made in that direction as you can see major construction
occurring throughout the city, and affordable housing units are included in most developments in the
city today. I would like to see how much progress is garnered under the city’s new Mayor Eric Adam’s
administration.
The scarcity of affordable housing in New York City has reached a breaking point. The issue has
numerous origins, the first of which is the diminishing purchasing power of New Yorkers in the housing

17. 17
market. After adjusting for inflation, tenant wages have remained unchanged for the past 20 years,
growing by less than 15%. The average monthly rent for an apartment in New York City climbed by
over 40% during the same period.
As a result, most New Yorkers today have restricted housing alternatives and must pay an exorbitant
amount of their income merely to keep a roof over their heads, leaving them with insufficient funds to
meet other fundamental necessities. Across the five boroughs, the high rent burden impacts practically
every income bracket in every area.
11. NYC.Gov. “Housing New York: A Five-Borough, Ten-Year Plan - NYC.gov,” 2021.

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Conclusion/Recommendations & Implementations
In New York City the primary cause of the affordable housing crisis is that low inventory outweighs the
exceedingly high demand, resulting in a continuous shortage.
This case study discussed the history of housing in NYC, housing acts, tenements, the history of the
New York City Housing Authority, several types of affordable housing programs, redlining, broken
window policing, and gentrification in the sections above.
My case study has examined the history of affordable housing or lack thereof in NYC beginning with
housing policies spawned by housing reformers and philanthropists wanting to improve the basic living
circumstances of the working poor, not solely or primarily concerned with the issues of affordability.
The density of NYC and the materials, what the land is made of makes this an ongoing issue.
In general, affordable housing in New York City has been defined as housing that costs one-third or less
of a household's income and is regulated in such a way that the rent cannot rise dramatically over time.
In conclusion, the issues with affordable housing have always revolved around the primary issue of a
lack of new housing units coupled with changes in the city’s population density.
Wages for the City's renters have also stagnated, especially in the last 20 years, increasing by less than
15 percent. During the same period, the average monthly rent for an apartment in New York City
increased by almost 40 percent. What it costs to make housing affordable depends on the cost of
construction, the tenant’s relationship to the AMI, and what the tenant will pay for rent. The 30% cap of
the renter’s total income for rent in public housing was augmented in 2016 by the Affordable NY
Housing Program, which offers three options for tax exemptions to restart the 421a tax break in New
York State to developers building new multifamily residential buildings in NYC. These are among a
series of tax reliefs that try to compensate for the moratorium on federal financing of affordable housing.
While there is no cookie-cutter answer, proposed solutions must include the continued development of
new affordable housing units which could contribute to the city’s ongoing housing problem along with
adjustments to the size and type of buildings allowed in rezoning areas that will fuel the creation of new
residential units. As you see in the 5 boroughs of New York City, vertical construction is occurring
which encompasses all these prerequisites.

19. 19
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