Radical Urban Planning Can Fight Gentrification With Affordable Housing

February 24, 2020                      By: Valerie Schloredt, YES! MAGAZINE

We tend to talk about gentrification as if it’s beyond our control, that replacing old urban houses with identical high-end condos is a law of nature. We sigh as historically Black, ethnically diverse, and immigrant communities are displaced, destroying social infrastructure that was built up over generations.

But it isn’t inevitable; it’s the result of decades of policies that reflect the power of wealth in shaping our urban landscapes. So why do city governments in the United States usually do such a poor job of balancing people’s rights with property rights?

Members of the Brooklyn Anti-Gentrification Network took took to the streets at Brooklyn's third borough-wide march 

against gentrification, racism and police violence on September 21, 2019, in New York City.  

Erik McGregor/Lightrocket Via Getty Images

Samuel Stein, a doctoral student at City University of New York whose work focuses on urban planning and gentrification, takes on that question in his well-received new book, Capital City: Gentrification and the Real Estate State (Verso, 2019). The answer has to do with money, history, and the economy. As North America deindustrialized from the mid-20th century on, capital began investing in land and buildings, “the literal and figurative space left by urban industrial flight.” Real estate is now a $217 trillion industry, Stein writes, forming 60% of global assets. We’re living in “a real estate state,” where real estate interests with capital to invest have undue influence in city planning decisions.................Read More.

When Public Housing is Erased

February 25, 2020                                                          By: Holly Dutton

A new documentary produced by renowned filmmaker Ken Burns sheds light on the legacy of public housing in the U.S. and what happens when it disappears.

Queensbridge Houses in New York City.  Image via Wikimedia Commons

The concept of public housing in the U.S. first began in 1936 in Atlanta, Ga., with the opening of Techwood Homes, the nation’s first government-owned housing development. Since then, the role of public housing in cities has changed dramatically, at times becoming synonymous with the idea of disinvestment, crime and poverty.

“East Lake Meadows,” a new documentary by Sarah Burns and David McMahon, explores one public housing development in-depth, telling the story of how the project came to be, the people who called it home, and how it all fell apart. The 650-unit project was built in 1970 in Atlanta and later became notorious for drugs and crime in the early 1990s, before it was eventually torn down by the city and turned into a mixed-income community.

Portions of the film, which will air March 24 on PBS, were screened at an event hosted by the CUNY Graduate Center recently in New York City, where the filmmakers, former residents and executive producer Ken Burns, the acclaimed documentary filmmaker, spoke on a panel following the film screening. The filmmakers said they sought to tell the real story of the community and its chapter in the legacy of public housing in the U.S.

“The story of East Lake Meadows has been told before, but it’s often from the same perspective,” said McMahon.........Read More

Administration Proposes to Cut HUD Budget by $8.6 Billion

February 10, 2020               By: Affordable Housing Finance

Home and CDBG programs are targeted for elimination.

The Trump administration has again released a budget proposal that cuts funding for longtime public housing and community development programs.

The fiscal 2021 plan requests $47.9 billion for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), $8.6 billion less than the enacted level for this year. Under the proposal, the HOME and Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) programs would be eliminated.

The administration has tried to kill the programs and reduce funding for other HUD initiatives before, but Congress has maintained its support, with HOME receiving $1.35 billion and the CDBG fund receiving $3.43 billion in 2020.

On the public housing front, the proposal requests $28.4 billion for the Office of Public and Indian Housing, about $4 billion less than this year. HUD is seeking to combine the public housing operating and capital funds into a “public housing fund,” which would receive $3.57 billion. That’s about $3.8 billion less than the enacted levels for the two funds in 2020.

HUD says the decrease is partly due to moving funds to a proposed Moving to Work (MTW) account. There are 39 current MTW public housing authorities (PHAs), and HUD expects to add 30 new PHAs, which would serve 94,000 of the approximately 915,000 public housing units, says the budget plan...............Read More

The Affordable Housing Industry's Top 10 Stories of 2019

December 27, 2019                                By: Christine Serlin

AHF, industry leaders count down the news events of the year.

2019 was a relatively quiet year for the affordable housing industry, unlike the previous several years when effects of tax reform and the 2016 presidential election dominated the news. Even so, the year brought us new trends and notable changes.

Affordable Housing Finance, with help from its Editorial Advisory Board members, takes a look at 10 news events for the industry from the past year.

1. Growing Focus on Affordable Housing

The affordability crisis made national and local headlines during 2019.

“There’s increased national interest in increasing the supply of affordable housing,” says Bart Mitchell, president and CEO of The Community Builders. “Everyone is talking about it, from presidential candidates with housing plans to more congressional sponsors to increase low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) resources than ever before.”

Affordable housing has been a key talking point for 2020 Democratic presidential contenders, even coming front and center during a primary debate in November. It also was a hot topic in local elections across the nation this past fall.

The LIHTC continues to receive broad bipartisan support in Congress. The Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act (S. 1703 and H.R. 3077) has 197 co-sponsors in the House—125 Democrats and 72 Republicans—and 37 co-sponsors in the Senate—24 Democrats, 11 Republicans, and two Independents. One of the bill’s provisions, the permanent 4% LIHTC rate, was in play up to the last minute in budget negotiations in mid-December but was abruptly pulled at the last minute....................Read More

The Affordable Senior Housing Challenge

December 5, 2019                             By: Sibley Fleming

Developers and service providers are grappling with the affordable senior housing dilemma.

By 2029, 54 percent of the nation’s 14.4 million middle-income seniors won’t be able to afford private-pay seniors housing options for long before they exhaust their resources and become eligible for Medicaid. Out-of-pocket costs for assisted living will be $60,000 by then. Those telling—and sobering—statistics are key findings of a study released this past spring by the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center and sponsored by the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care, a Washington, D.C.-based research organization. The key takeaway? There is a huge need for affordable senior housing and care for middle-income seniors.

Pearlon Oyster Bay

“If you think of this as multifamily housing in the workforce world, this is workforce housing, but for seniors,” said Beth Burnham Mace, NIC chief economist and director of outreach.

The study sent a shot over the bow of the senior housing industry, which has to date been most prolific at providing seniors housing solutions in the form of continuing care retirement communities for the top 20 percent of the market and the government-subsidized bottom 20 percent.

Providing this much-needed housing and related services has become the talk of seniors housing conferences, policy and finance summits. “Everybody is paying attention to this market. But nobody has quite figured out how to get their arms around this market, what it’s going to look like,” said John Cochrane, CEO of Pleasanton, Calif.-based HumanGood, which owns and operates 21 continuing care communities serving primarily the upper income demographic as well as 96 affordable senior housing communities......................Read More

BIG CITIES ARE TAKING ON HOUSING AFFORDABILITY, BUT EVEN THE LARGEST WILL NEED HELP

November 4, 2019                            By: Daniel McCue

The nation’s largest cities are at the forefront of the battle against high housing costs. In efforts described in our latest State of the Nation’s Housing report and in previous blogs, several big cities have come forward to revise zoning and land use regulations to open up land and allow higher densities of housing development. Some have also made permitting procedures faster or less cumbersome, others have reduced requirements such as those for allocated parking to lower development costs, and a few have legalized less costly housing options such as accessory dwelling units. Many have also dedicated local funds to build and preserve affordable housing.

But how far can these big-city actions go to alleviate large-scale, regionwide challenges of high housing costs? A quick look at the Census Bureau’s latest population estimates suggests that cities can only go so far in solving affordability issues because even the largest cities are home to just a fraction of their metro area populations.

As shown in Figure 1, cities in the US make up just a small portion of the population within their overall metropolitan areas. Some cities make up a surprisingly low share. The cities of Miami and Atlanta, for example, are each home to just 8 percent of the populations in their respective metro areas. Washington, DC, despite its relatively high population density, is also home to just 11 percent of its metro area population. The city of Boston, which is part of a particularly fractured metropolitan area that includes dozens of small New England cities and towns, is home to just 14 percent of the population in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton metropolitan area...............Read More

FIGURE 1: EVEN THE LARGEST CITIES MAKE UP JUST A SMALL PORTION OF THEIR METRO AREA POPULATIONS

Tax-Exempt Loan Helps Structure NYC RAD Deal

October 24, 2019                              By: Multifamily Executive

$192.2 million public housing project demonstrates the power of creative teamwork.

Brought to you by Freddie Mac Multifamily

The Hope Gardens NYCHA development in Brooklyn, NYC | Courtesy: Hunt Companies (Photo: Michael Ratliff)

The story and great lesson of the $192.2 million Hope Gardens portfolio acquisition and renovation can be summarized in seven words: Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

The ”way” involves the enabling Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) conversion of 1,321 New York City public housing units to clear the way for an ambitious and desperately needed renovation program. The immediate list of improvements includes everything from new boilers and wiring to updated kitchens and bathrooms. Longer term, the conversion ensures Hope Gardens residents in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood gain the permanent stability and peace of mind of housing affordability.

The federal RAD program seeks to improve and preserve at-risk public housing developments by allowing the properties to convert to long-term Section 8 rental assistance contracts. This is critical because it puts the housing authorities in better position to leverage additional financing to perform needed improvements.

Still, the road to closing was a challenge, requiring an impressive array of creative strategies and tools— tax-exempt loans, low-income housing tax credits and other funding sources; rent blending; and judicious risk taking by all players factored into the deal............................Read More