Millionaires living in subsidized apartments is only the most obviously perverse result of New York’s “affordable housing” efforts. Even if the city paid enough attention to enforce its own rules, the system would still be unfair.
In his audit of 97 subsidized Mitchell-Lama developments, state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli found that, as of 2012, at least 230 tenants were pulling in $250,000 a year or more. One had an income of $1.4 million.
It’s hard to blame anyone for not giving up a good deal on a New York City apartment, and these folks qualified back when they first got their places.
In fact, many “affordable housing” programs — including ones Mayor de Blasio has been pushing — only test eligibility at the start: You can win the lottery and still keep rights to your apartment.
Fine, Mitchell-Lama’s not meant to work that way; the city’s supposed to ask tenants to leave once their income exceeds 125 percent of the eligibility limit. Instead, the audit found, landlords usually just tack on surcharges of 5 to 50 percent. But it’s hard to blame them for gaming the system either: No one wants to lose a good tenant.
Vicki Been, the Housing Preservation and Development chief, protests Mitchell-Lama “provides stable, affordable apartments to more than 100,000 New Yorkers, the vast majority of whom are low-income.”
Lucky them — but most people in this city of 8 million find housing costs outrageous.
The whole “affordable” game is only a gesture at satisfying that public fury. It never benefits more than the lucky (or connected) few who score one of these pads.
What’s needed is fundamental change to make housing more affordable for everyone: sane zoning to allow more and faster building; wiser regulation that doesn’t drive up construction costs needlessly.
City spending can help — for example, on faster mass transit, to allow practical commutes from now-remote neighborhoods.
Even Mayor de Blasio admits that city-owned public housing is no solution; when he and his fellow progressives finally face the futility of their “affordable” schemes, maybe the city can turn to real answers.