The de Blasio administration said Thursday it still hasn’t decided whether to support extension of a property-tax break that’s costing the city $1 billion a year but has also produced thousands of “affordable” apartments.
“We are still in the listening and analysis phase,” Vicki Been, commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, told a City Council hearing.
The 421-a tax abatement program was introduced in the 1970s to encourage construction of new housing. Developers get a tax break by setting aside some of their units as “affordable.”
Housing advocates charge that the program, which is up for renewal this June in Albany, is a giveaway to developers, who have used it to lower their taxes on some of the city’s most luxurious towers.
“As the program is currently constituted, it should not be renewed, and I don’t think that’s something that the administration is saying,” said council Housing Committee Chair Jumaane Williams (D-Brooklyn).
There have been 42,000 apartments produced under 421-a since 2009, including 7,600 “affordable” units.
“The growing demand for more affordable homes means we must continue 421-a and strengthen it to promote broader affordability,” said Jolie Milstein, president of the New York State Association for Affordable Housing.