Affordable Housing

A 2003 study from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) states that children in New York City are nearly twice as likely to have been hospitalized for asthma as kids in the United States as a whole. We must reintroduce Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum’s “New York City Asthma-Free Housing Act,” Introduction 750 of 2008, to require owners of multiple dwellings, where a person with respiratory problems resides, to prevent and immediately remove indoor allergen hazards such as mold, cockroaches, mice, rats, and dust mites. While HPD considers some mold conditions to be a violation of the Housing Maintenance Code, there is currently no established and enforceable protocol for mold assessment and remediation.

The New York City Housing Court hears over 365,000 cases per year. All of these cases are noted by tenant screening bureaus, resulting in a blacklist for any assertion of legal rights or defenses. Mirroring Assembly Member Bing's State version, this proposal would amend the New York City Human Rights Law to prohibit the use of court records to form blacklists. Tenants could then assert legal rights and remedies without fear of retaliation through the blacklist and the New York City Commission on Human Rights could enforce this new provision without forcing tenants into costly litigation to get off the blacklists.

In 1975 the City of New York departed from a comprehensive centralized City-wide master plan when it recognized the importance of community planning under Section 197-a, and was further expanded in 1989 when New York City’s 59 Community Boards were empowered to develop local land use development plans and retain professional experts. Unfortunately, Community Board offices are under-funded and under-staffed for the hundreds of thousands of people they represent and are often unable to propose a community 197-a plan, with a price tag of $50,000 to $250,000. Of the nine proposed between 1989 and 2004, only seven were adopted by the City Planning Commission and the City Council. But even the seven adopted have largely gone ignored in favor of development in response to special interests and market forces instead of actual City planning. There are countless stories of abandoned community 197-a plans like Greenpoint and Williamsburg begging for affordable housing and preservation of manufacturing jobs only to be given luxury high-rise condominiums.

Community Boards must be empowered to create their own neighborhood 197-a plans by providing funding, technical resources and staffing for these valuable plans so that we can encourage each board to create a 197-a plan for each of our 59 community districts. The Public Advocate should also work with the Borough Presidents to investigate how often the City Council and Department of City Planning (DCP) abide by the few 197-a plans that have been adopted and ensure that DCP begins giving regular reports on those 197-a plans that have been adopted.