HOUSING POLICY STUDIES
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Reports
Making the Rent: Who's At Risk?
Rent-Income Stresses and Housing Hardship among Low-Income New Yorkers (PDF). May 2008. By Tom Waters, Housing Policy
Analyst, and Victor Bach, Senior Housing Policy Analyst.
Rent-Income Stresses and Housing Hardship among Low-Income New Yorkers.
Closing the Door 2007: The Shape of Subsidized Housing Loss in New York City (PDF). May 2007. By Tom Waters, Housing Policy
Analyst, and Victor Bach, Senior Housing Policy Analyst.
Available Affordable Housing Continues to Decline for City Residents – Where Will Low Income New Yorker's Live?
Making the Rent, 2002 to 2005: Changing Rent Burdens & Housing Hardships Among Low-Income New Yorkers (PDF). December 2006. By Tom Waters, Housing Policy
Analyst, and Victor Bach, Senior Housing Policy Analyst.
This report updates the CSS analysis of rent burden trends from 2002 through 2005. It confirms that unaffordable rents and high burdens are spreading to a wider cross-section of low-income New Yorkers. Moreover, as housing costs increase, they are eating into income gains, leaving families with less real income to meet other necessities. The consequences of these trends are harshly visible in rising rates of housing hardship.
Closing
the Door: Accelerating Losses of New York City
Subsidized Housing (PDF). May 2006. By Tom Waters, Housing Policy
Analyst, and Victor Bach, Senior Housing Policy Analyst.
New York City's supply of subsidized, privately owned rental housing
is shrinking at a faster rate than ever before, exposing low-income
New Yorkers to the risk of greater rent burdens, displacement,
and homelessness. In 2005 alone, a record 5,500 apartments were
lost.
Making the
Rent: Housing Hardship and Rent Burdens Among Poor New Yorkers
(PDF). April 2005. By Victor Bach, Senior Housing Policy Analyst.
For New York City's poorest residents, increasing rent burdens
are eating into and eroding disposable income available to meet
basic needs such as food, medicine, utilities, heating and more.
Rising rents have been outpacing household income gains for poor
New Yorkers. This report examined changing rent burdens for low-income
New Yorkers between 1993 and 2002 and their potential consequences,
using data derived from the triennial NYC Housing & Vacancy
Surveys (HVS) carried out by the U.S. Bureau of the Census.
Why
the Mayor’s Legislation Should Protect Both Mitchell-Lama
Rentals and HUD-Subsidized Housing.
(PDF) December, 2003. By Victor Bach. (CSS Policy Memorandum.)
An Albany bill introduced by Mayor Bloomberg provides incentives
for owners of Mitchell-Lama rentals to remain in the program,
while providing rent stabilization protections to tenants when
owners leave the program. The memorandum points to the large stock
of HUD-subsidized housing outside the Mitchell-Lama program that
is under similar threat. It argues for expanding preservation
incentives and protections to all threatened assisted housing.
Section
8 Housing Vouchers: Block Grants to the State? (PDF) June
2003. By Victor Bach and James DeFilippis. (CSS Policy Brief #10)
Section 8 housing choice vouchers have, since 1975, provided
federal assistance to a growing number of low-income families
to enable them to afford decent housing in the open rental market.
As it stands, the program is largely a federal-local collaboration.
The Bush administration now proposes to shift responsibility for
the Section 8 voucher program to the states.
Keeping
the Doors Open: HUD-subsidized Housing in New York City.
(PDF) May 2003. By James DeFilippis. (CSS Policy Brief #13)
Housing that is federally subsidized but privately owned constitutes
a significant component of the affordable rental stock in New
York City. From the 1960's through the mid- 1980's it opened doors
to over a quarter-million low-income New Yorkers. Those doors
are closing as this critical housing resource is threatened from
a variety of sources.
Resident
Participation in Public Housing: Making It Effective, CSS Urban
Agenda Advocacy Brief. July 2002. By Victor Bach, Nicole
Branca, and Artis Wright. (CSS Advocacy Brief #1)
Now that local housing authorities can set their own plans and
policies, growing attention has been given to the role of resident
participation. New York City's is the nation's largest, and reputedly
best public housing program, but resident leaders do not yet have
an effective voice in the decision process. A recent HUD allocation
of $7.6 million for participation in New York City is an opportunity
to assess and correct weaknesses in the current participatory
structure and process.
The Future of Public Housing
in New York City. July 1999. By Victor Bach. (CSS Policy
Brief)
Federal public housing reforms in the 1998 Quality Housing and
Work Responsibility Act will have major impacts on New York City's
primary low-income housing resource. There will be a net loss
of housing available to poor families, who make up about 80 percent
of the waiting list, as working families are given increased preference.
New rent policies and privatization initiatives may intensify
displacement pressures on existing residents. Further development
of public housing is now prohibited. The role of resident participation
is uncertain.
Distressed Housing: Implementing
New York City's Anti-Abandonment Agenda. February 1998.
By Sarah Hovde and Victor Bach. (CSS Policy Brief)
In the late 1990s, New York City overhauled its approach to rising
propery tax arrears and distressed housing undergoing owner disinvestment
and abandonment. This paper describes the emerging anti-abandonment
programs: an early warning system for identifying at-risk distressed
housing, the Neighborhood Preservation Consultant Program, and
the Third Party Ownership Transfer Program. It also assesses the
early implementation of the new anti-abandonment agenda.
Testimony
Hearings on The Future of Mitchell-Lama Housing, New York Assembly Standing Committee on Housing, Subcommittee on Mitchell-Lama (PDF) (August 8, 2006)
Testimony of Tom Waters, Housing Policy Analyst Community Service Society of New York
Housing Hardship and Rent Burdens Among Poor New Yorkers: Testimony
presented by Vic Bach to the NYC Rent Guidelines Board (May
2005).
Hearings
on Int. No. 523: Re Withdrawal of City-Supervised Mitchell-Lama
Developments from the Mitchell-Lama Program (PDF) (October
29, 2003)
Testimony of David R. Jones, President and CEO Community Service
Society of New York (CSS)
Committee on Housing and Buildings
New York City Council
Oversight Hearings:
The Future of Mitchell-Lama Housing in New York City Housing and
Buildings Committee New York City Council (PDF) (April 11,
2003)
Testimony of Victor Bach, Senior Housing Policy Analyst, Community
Service Society of New York
Archives
Balancing Acts: The Experience of Mutual Housing Associations
and Community Land Trusts in Urban Neighborhoods. 1996. By
John Krinsky and Sarah Hovde.
MHAs and CLTs blend housing and community development with community
organizing to create affordable housing insulated from market
pressures. Nonprofits creating these ownership models must blend
technical expertise with a delicate balance of educational, organizing,
and training activities. The report concludes the concepts are
sound in principle and in practice. It draws on the experience
of 20 MHAs and CLTs in 10 cities to explore how groups achieve
this balance and how successful they are.
Hands-On Housing: A Guide Through Mutual Housing Associations
and Community Land Trusts for Residents and Organizers. 1996.
By Sarah Hovde and John Krinsky. (Also in Spanish: Manos A La
Obra.)
A practical guide to help tenants and community activists navigate
the difficulties and possibilities others have experienced in
forming and operating Mutual Housing Associations and Community
Land Trusts. The guide draws on the experience of 20 organizations
in 10 cities attempting to produce and sustain housing affordable
to low and moderate income residents.
Lenders & Landlords: A Guide to Tenant Organizing in Financially
Distressed Housing, 1996, Community Service Society in collaboration
with the Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition.
A "how-to" manual for tenants and housing advocates on available
options to address housing deterioration and disinvestment. The
guide spells out practical ways to ensure that rental housing
is properly maintained by owners and the lenders that finance
them. The work is rooted in an analysis of the role played by
financing institutions in mounting owner disinvestment during
the economic downturn of the early 1990s.
Building Blocks: Community-Based Strategies to Counteract
Housing Disinvestment and Abandonment in New York City, 1994,
By Vicki Ann Oppenheim and Luis F. Sierra
Four case studies of community-based organizations on the front
line in addressing housing disinvestment and abandonment in their
neighborhoods. It chronicles the daunting job they do in working
with tenants and dealing with city programs and key institutional
actors.
Housing on the Block: Disinvestment and Abandonment Risks
in New York City Neighborhoods, 1993. By Victor Bach and Sherece
Y. West.
An analysis of key trends in the early 1990s that pointed to
mounting housing distress and rising risks of abandonment, with
an emphasis an property tax arrears and mortgage foreclosures
and receiverships. The report chronicles the city's prior experience
with abandonment. It includes a description of city housing preservation
programs then in place to address potential housing losses.
We Are the Landlords Now, A Report on Community-Based Housing
Management, 1993. By Doug Turetsky.
Community-based organizations and resident groups play a growing
role in taking over owner-abandoned housing and maintaining them
as affordable housing resources. This report chronicles their
experiences as they extend their roles from resident organizing
to housing management and ownership. It provides an assessment
of what factors spell success in achieving these multiple objectives.
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