NEW YORK CITY—When Mayor Bill De Blasio pledged during his campaign to focus on affordable housing, the industry was worried. But the Real Estate Board of New York sprung into action, canvasing members to share their ideas for how to best tackle the issue of creating affordable housing.
So when the Mayor unveiled his plan in May of last year to create or preserve 200,000 units across all five boroughs, REBNY was ready. It provided the administration with a host of comments, ideas and anecdotes on what worked in the past—and what didn't—when it came to making housing financially feasible for more New Yorkers.
“We tried to articulate to the administration why some of these issues are important and to have that included in their thinking as they move forward,” explains Mike Slattery, SVP of REBNY, to GlobeSt.com. “We wanted to provide information on what worked in the past and what wasn't successful.”
For example, he says, “We talked about the success in Lower Manhattan of converting obsolete office buildings to residential use. That was something that wasn't encouraged due to zoning and tax issues but the city recognized those problems and tried to address them with incentives for developers. That's just one example of something the city could institute in other areas to realize its affordable housing goal.”
While Slattery declines to say just how many ideas were submitted, or describe them in detail, he notes that some of those member offerings did show up in the Mayor's plan.
“I think they heard us on some issues, and that's important. It provided the kind of evidence that the Mayor's office took seriously the idea that it doesn't want to do things that slow down affordable housing production, such as requiring onerous percentages of projects to be comprised of affordable housing units. The Mayor's office understands that and its actions reflect that.”
In fact, when the Mayor's plan was unveiled, REBNY president Steven Spinola said, “It identifies the problems and provides a realistic roadmap for solutions. The Real Estate Board of New York looks forward to working with the administration to implement these critical objectives.”
Spinola is part of the Mayor's affordable housing implementation board, a group that a spokesman says has met several times since de Blasio took office.
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Rayna Katz
Rayna Katz is a seasoned business journalist whose extensive experience includes coverage of the lodging sector, travel and the culinary space. She was most recently content director for a business-to-business publisher, overseeing four publications. While at Meeting News, a travel trade publication, she received a Best Reporting award for a story on meeting cancellations in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
