Social housing is having a moment.
It is a term that will incite or excite, depending on the audience, because of its association with the Democratic Socialists of America and its mission to decommodify housing.
But this type of housing takes many forms, and is not, at least at this point, universally available in the U.S. nor fully divorced from market forces. (The Community Service Society has a handy breakdown on how “social” various models of social housing are based on level of decommodification, resident control and social equality.)
In New York, several social housing proposals have popped up in just the past few months. Assembly member Emily Gallagher and Sen. Cordell Cleare introduced a bill that would create a public benefit corporation, the Social Housing Authority. The agency would acquire property and finance housing using state funds and bonds. The bill’s sponsors have said that they would seek an initial $5 billion in state funds for the authority.
Meanwhile, in their one-house budget resolution, Senate Democrats pitched the New York Housing Opportunity Corporation Act, which was framed as a reboot of the old Mitchell-Lama program. A key difference between that and the predecessor program would be that developers/managers would not have the option to buy the property out of the program, so apartments would stay affordable.
The bill would create a public benefit authority that would lease state-owned land back to developers, who would build affordable rentals and limited equity co-ops. The Senate called for an initial $250 million (repurposed from Empire State Development) to be included in the state budget for the newly created authority.
In its budget resolution, the Assembly proposed the “Foundations for Futures Housing” program, which would be overseen by the state’s housing agency, to fund limited equity co-ops on land owned by the state, localities, nonprofits or community land trusts. The chamber put $500 million for that program in its budget bill.
Sen. Jessica Ramos has introduced a measure that calls for $1 billion in state funding to build affordable rentals and limited equity-co-ops on state land or rehab existing properties.
Community land trusts have gained momentum in recent years, but we’ve started to see more cities and states try to ramp up their public housing offerings.
Montgomery County in Maryland is building homes using a revolving housing fund. The county maintains a majority stake in the properties, where at 70 percent of the units are market-rate. The idea is that the housing is self-sustaining. A similar model was just proposed in Rhode Island.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson pitched borrowing $1.25 billion through bond sales, of which up to $135 million would go to a revolving housing fund. Last year, Seattle voted to create a Social Housing Developer. Advocates are now pushing to create a payroll tax to fund the public authority. Last year California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill to create a social housing program, but signed another that requires the state to study the issue.
Ideology aside, the models raise a number of questions: Would there be long-term funding for maintenance of these properties? Can these models be scaled up without federal funding? Is this the most efficient use of limited local and state resources?
What we’re thinking about: At least five bills have been introduced in Albany to amend so-called squatters’ rights. Will any garner enough support to pass this session? Send a note to kathryn@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: In residential brokerage, “triple mint” refers to a property’s kitchen, bathrooms and overall condition being pristine, Compass’ Elizabeth Ann Stribling-Kivlan wrote in Forbes. Thank you to Ellen Cranley for passing this along!
Elsewhere in New York…
— Thanks to a phishing scam, the city’s payroll website has been partially shut down for a week, Politico New York reports. City Hall employees received text messages seeking passwords, usernames and other personal information.
— Sections of 53 streets in the city will go carless this Earth Day, Gothamist reports. That is up from 30 last year. “Car-free day is about celebrating Mother Earth,” said Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez. “We encourage all New Yorkers on this day and as many days as possible to leave their vehicles at home and opt for more sustainable modes of transportation like transit, biking or walking.”
— Onondaga County officials filed a lawsuit challenging a new law that moved many local elections to even years to align with races for governor, president and Congress, the Times Union reports. The suit alleges that the law violates the county’s home rule rights but also “implicates a number of significant matters of local concern.”
Closing Time
Residential: The priciest residential sale of the day was a $17 million single-family home at 25 West 88th Street in Central Park West. The renovated residence is 8,068 square feet and includes an elevator.
Commercial: The most expensive commercial sale of the day was $3.2 million for an industrial building at 45-14 51st Street in Queens.
New to the Market: The priciest listing to hit the market was a condo unit at 53 West 53rd Street in Midtown West. The new development unit is listed for $40 million. Douglas Elliman’s Renee Micheli, Jade Chan, Frances Katzen, Fredrik Eklund and Shari Scharfer Rollins have the listing. — Joseph Jungermann