“Affordable” housing in New York City: A case of inclusionary zoning in Greenpoint-Williamsburg
New York City, like many other cities across the world, is experiencing a housing crisis attributed primarily to rising rents against stagnant wages for many New Yorkers. As a result, over half the city’s renters pay more than 30% of their household income toward rent, limiting their resources for other essentials like health and education. Mayoral administrations have often prioritized the crisis and designed tools to increase affordable housing stock. Inclusionary Housing in New York is one such tool, designed to integrate production of affordable homes with market development. The technique is typically tied with re-zoning activities and incentivizes the creation of affordable units by offering FAR bonuses in exchange for permanently affordable units. While these initiatives are often contentious for their transformative nature, the city continues to up-zone neighborhoods to facilitate development on underutilized land, add to housing stock and promote diversity. While there is exhaustive literature that critically analyzes inclusionary housing policy across the nation, there is limited public knowledge about the effectiveness in specific housing markets. This thesis investigates the outcome of one such program from 2005, in the Greenpoint-Williamsburg neighborhood of north Brooklyn. Considering the limited specific data about production and affordability of inclusionary units, the document relies on reviewing the policy’s text to estimate the number of units produced and argues that production simply does not meet the need for affordable housing.
Affordable Housing, Inclusionary Housing Program, New York City
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign