The Right to Housing

landmark Climate Mobilization Act of 2019 (CMA), also known as the NYC Green New Deal. LL97 and later amendments place strict limits on greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Extend the law’s full coverage to include all larger subsidized housing and faith-based properties after 2035; provide more flexibility for how compliance is achieved; and provide financial support to help affordable housing developments comply. 4. Lobby and rally for guaranteed annual income or second income startegies, reparations, universal access to capital, etc.---to get at the root cause of inadequate affordable housing: inadequate household incomes. 5. Make mandatory inclusionary housing universal in New York City, even for as-of-right development. Require Community Boards to identify workable sites for affordable and mixed-income development to meet quantifiable objectives indicated in a “fair share plan” for New York City. To make such development more practical: eliminate parking requirements proximate to subway stations, increase funding for supportive housing, and broaden the opportunity for accessory apartments across more typologies. 6. . Maximize opportunities for homeownership that builds intergenerational wealth, especially for BIPOC (Black, indigenous, people of color). Support tried and true as well as innovative approaches in both shared ownership and sweat equity. Lobby for a federal home ownership down payment assistance program. 7. In coastal areas that will be under high tide by 2100: Start now to comprehensively plan for both household relocation (for renters and homeowners, alike) and whole community climigration (e.g., for tightknit communities and public housing tenants). Adjust the City’s review process to fully address climate change over the next century, to forestall treating climate change as “the next mayor / mortgage cycle’s problem.” Plan for improving the communities to be densified; for honoring historic resources and narratives; and for repurposing the areas of retreat for public benefit, such as parks and a return to nature. Be smart: Actively discourage new development in the areas most at risk. 8. Adopt the principle of humanistic and managed retreat, hinging on resident choice as to when, how, and within reason when to relocate. This means meaningful community participation especially for BIPOC populations; financing the full, true costs of relocation (not just the cost of the unit); use of Section-8 Housing Choice (or similar) funding that gives low-income households rental support not tied to an address; and creative use of easements and covenants, such as government purchase of the property with a right for the residents to remain for the interim. 9. Fully finance New York City Housing (NYCHA) building rehabilitation, while also reserving ‘upland’ NYCHA property and finding new sites to potentially accommodate NYCHA residents who will be displaced from campuses that are expected to be under high tide or often flooded as of the year 2100.

As the final, tenth recommendation: This is a multi-decade effort that will prove budget-busting unless we start now and spread out the costs over decades. We recommend tapping into new revenue streams, such as restoring the New York State Stock Transfer Tax, adjustments to how property is taxed, or “flip taxes” on property sales. Raising taxes is never popular; it is always lobbied against. But it is necessary to make New York City a national model for taking advantage of emerging technologies that can reduce the city’s carbon footprint, meaningfully adding to the supply of affordable housing at multiple income tiers, achieving humanistic retreat that yields a better city and is equitable, and demonstrating the principle of housing as a right.