Fighting for Affordable Housing

About

New Yorkers are increasingly unable to afford to live in their own city. As rents and housing prices rise, our neighborhoods are becoming more segregated, homelessness continues to rise, and people are being pushed out of their communities. There is a significant lack of deep and permanently affordable housing opportunities developed for lower income new Yorkers, and particularly for the nearly 30% of households considered extremely low income. We are all in danger of losing the diverse city we love. 

Why This Matters

While the government acknowledges the affordable housing crisis, local policies and programs too often continue to serve the needs of private developers and the private market over the actual needs of New Yorkers, especially, our lowest income families. Additionally, as we have learned from the current expiring use crisis—we cannot afford to keep losing the affordable housing we develop and preserve; public investment in affordable housing should permanently serve the public interest.

What We're Doing

ANHD is fighting to create fair and affordable housing throughout New York City that prioritizes those most in need and least served by the private market.

We believe New York’s affordable housing policies and investments must be driven by the needs of our people, and not by the real estate industry or private developers. Our work attempts to shift housing resources and policies to focus on the lowest income New Yorkers. 

ANHD’s goal is for all affordable housing developed with public resources to be permanently affordable, avoiding the current time-limited affordability requirements that have left the city scrambling to preserve subsidized housing created in earlier eras with public dollars. We also want deep affordability, which ensures those at the lowest end of the income spectrum have housing opportunities in our city.

Check out the associated projects below for more information on how we are fighting for affordable housing.  

Related Resources

What does it do? What does it cost? In January 2017, a revised 421-a Tax Exemption, rebranded and given the title “The Affordable New York Housing Program,” was introduced and inserted into the...
An analysis of the impacts -- and inefficiencies -- of tax exemption 421a in increasing affordable housing
ANHD is today releasing the 2016 edition of How is Affordable Housing Threatened in Your Neighborhood?  Each year, this "risk chart" chart takes a variety of indicators of threats to...
An annual city-wide analysis of key threats to affordable housing broken down by neighborhood
ANHD’s new map shows the areas where MIH serving below 40% AMI is most critical for the local residents
Testimony calling on the City Council to revise the Administration's Mandatory Inclusionary Housing proposal to address the deeper affordability levels needed to meet the full range of incomes and neighborhoods across the City.
Testimony calling on the City Council to revise the Administration's Mandatory Inclusionary Housing proposal to address the deeper affordability levels needed to meet the full range of incomes and neighborhoods across the City.
An analysis of the City’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing proposal evaluating the cost of "deep affordability" to the developer, and the need to provide true affordability to meet the needs of NYC's residents.
Guide to understanding this year's Area Median Income (AMI) breakdowns by rent, income and percentages at each level.

Pages