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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow Your Tax Dollars Are Wasted To Build Luxury Apartments
(Gothamist) Subsidize our house, not the penthouse! protesters chanted last month outside One57, the luxury skyscraper that's the second-tallest residential building in the Western Hemisphere and the most expensive in New York. Were basically subsidizing luxury buildings and giving away money to developers who can afford to build, said Maritza Silva-Farrell, coordinator of the Real Affordability for All campaign, who was one of the demonstrators standing next to the glass-bound monolith.
The protest was part of a campaign by tenant and housing activists to end the 421-a program, a $1.1 billion-a-year tax break for apartment construction that largely goes to luxury buildings, including One57.
With both the 421-a program and the state's rent stabilization laws set to expire on June 15, the controversial initiative may become a bargaining chip in the fight for more affordable housing.
It has been proven not to build the affordable housing that we need in our communities, so we want it to end," Silva-Farrell says.
The subsidy's use has grown prodigiously over the last decade. Last year, 421-a subsidized more than 70,000 new apartments, more than three times as many as it did during the pre-recession real-estate boom, according to a recent Association for Neighborhood Housing Development report. ....................(more)
http://gothamist.com/2015/03/18/how_can_we_stop_luxury_developers_f.php
brewens
(13,631 posts)They could afford to just build at their own expense but blackmail taxpayers into paying for it. Then they and the players rake in all the money and the little guy that paid for it can't even afford to go see a game. One of the reasons I'm not that big of a fan anymore.
JimDandy
(7,318 posts)perpetrated on the US taxpayers.
I say US and not just NY, because according to gothamist, some of these luxury apartment buildings double and triple dip by also simultaneously getting federal subsidies (two or three subsidies in total) for the same building, without having to set aside twice or three times the number of affordable units. This happens because the building developers/owners are allowed to count and credit the same apartment multiple times as an "affordable" unit under each subsidy!
And it gets worse:
"In fact, developers getting subsidies from another program besides 421-a can double the maximum income level for the below-market apartments, so a $2,500 apartment can still qualify as 'affordable'. (Mayor de Blasio's affordable-housing program plan, announced last year, would require about one third of publicly aided apartments to be below market rate, but most would be designated for families making about $60,000-$130,000.)"