Affordable housing development must seek a better balance between market rate and affordable housing. Pioneers who have built our neighborhoods must not be forced to leave because they are victims of their own success, their housing should remain affordable so that they may realize the fruits of their labor.<br><br>As former Chief of Staff for <a href="http://www.nyc.gov/html/hpd/html/apartment/mitchell-lama.shtml" target="_BLANK"><strong>Mitchell-Lama</strong></a> Subcommittee Chair, <a href="http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/ad=073" target="_BLANK"><strong>Assemblyman Jonathan L. Bing</strong></a>, I know the current issues facing affordable housing. I had the opportunity to work on the next generation of progressive <a href="http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/bn=A00860" target="_BLANK"><strong>legislation</strong></a> that would scale certain rent regulations to the <a href="http://www.bls.gov/CPI/" target="_BLANK"><strong>consumer price index</strong></a>, so that new laws are always current and housing remains affordable for generations to come. But there is more to do and as your City Council member I will continue this work by reforming rent regulation, using market indices like the <a href="http://www.bls.gov/CPI/" target="_BLANK"><strong>consumer price index</strong></a>, and expanding affordable housing.<br><br>In addition to fixing affordable housing and rent regulation laws, we must also create a centralized affordable housing resource. Affordable housing must be <strong>transparent</strong>, with easily accessible and searchable lists by address and qualification, rather than having to search through over a dozen different programs and agencies. We must <strong>open</strong> affordable housing by creating an easy centralized application process. Lastly, the waiting lists for all affordable housing must be publicly available to provide <strong>accountability</strong> where these waiting lists have been previously abused.
“I share the mayor’s goal for affordability, but have concerns about the lack of mixed-income developments proposed in the plan,” said Councilman Ben Kallos (D-Manhattan).
“A middle-income family should still have somewhere to live in this city. They’re not provided for in the mayor’s plan.”
In January 2015 Councilmember Benjamin Kallos spearheaded the “Anti Tenant-Blacklist” bill, which he introduced to the City Council. This bill would allow a tenant who felt discriminated against to file a complaint with the NYC Commission on Human Rights. Violations would be issued to landlords if complaints were justified.
Last month, Werner met with City Council Member Ben Kallos to discuss enforcement and administration of the law, which is shared by HPD, the city’s Department of Finance and the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR). A reporter also attended.
“We have a bureaucratic quagmire between DHCR, HPD and DOF and we as a city and a state must get to the bottom of it,” Kallos said at the meeting. He called Werner “a hero” for raising the issue.
Community Voices Heard called on Mayor Bill de Blasio to increase funding for NYCHA out of the city budget and to cease private development on NYCHA land. Councilmember Ben Kallos offered words of support and vowed to stand with Holmes residents.
Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer also came out against the plan, and questioned why prospective market rate tenants would want to live in apartments where garbage trucks will rumbling by on their way to the MTS (the Dept. of Sanitation has not yet revealed the exact route trucks will take on their way to the MTS, but East 92nd Street is a likely route).
“The garbage trucks are going to go by Holmes,” said Brewer. “It’s hard for the residents.”
She also criticized the plan for retroactively engaging with tenants of Holmes Towers after key decisions have already been made. She also wants any residential project at Holmes to be one hundred percent affordable.
“I don’t know that I’d call it a joke, but I’d call it a challenging process,” said Brewer of the city’s forthcoming attempt to win tenants over to the plan. “I would want a hundred percent affordable with much discussion about what affordable is.”
Councilmember Ben Kallos, who is also opposed to the plan, agreed.
“I think we’re going to make it as hard for the mayor to do this as possible,” he said.
Kallos said NYCHA is set to meet with residents to review the plan on Oct. 7.
Both Senator Jose Serrano and City Councilman Ben Kallos promised to fight to keep the new high-rise slated to rise at the East 93rd Street public housing complex affordable.
Councilman Ben Kallos, whose district includes Holmes, said de Blasio promised to meet personally with residents next month, though Kallos still thinks the plan is wrong.
“It’s all about the almighty dollar too often, and that is in exchange for living conditions of human beings and right now we say no to that,” said City Council member Jumaane D. Williams, who along with City Council members Dan Garodnick, and Ben Kallos, came out in support against predatory equity landlords. “Human capital is the most important thing that we have in this city of New York and we want to make sure that everybody has the ability to live in an affordable unit and have protections against arbitrary evictions and to live in a unit fit for a human to occupy.”
“While last year I pushed for a rent freeze … this year I am joining with the tenant advocates in calling for a rent rollback,” City Council member Margaret Chin said as cited by Capital. Council members Corey Johnson, Dan Garodnick, Ben Kallos, Jumaane Williams, Helen Rosenthal and Mark Levine also attended the meeting and called for a rent rollback.
