Who benefits from affordable housing production

Jeanne Majors is what you expect a quintessential New Yorker to be: tough, resourceful and quick-witted.

“I know how to fight,” says Jeanne, a quality she attributes to her years as a union activist. But the 73-year-old Queens native is no match for New York’s unforgiving housing crisis. In 2001, after paying her grandfather’s funeral expenses and losing her family home, she found herself homeless.

Majors had a union job at LaGuardia Airport, attended Queens College and finished Cornell University’s Labor Studies certificate program. In 2005, Jeanne started to receive her union pension totaling about $950 a month — too little to afford an apartment, too much to qualify for many subsidized rental units. She followed leads for affordable housing but there wasn’t much available.

“The landlords don’t want to accept the programs,” said Jeanne.

Jeanne’s hurdles reveal a stark truth about modern New York, where an education and a good job no longer guarantee you can afford a roof over your head. According to city law, New Yorkers have a right to shelter — but that doesn’t appear to mean much to local politicians. An informal legislative practice, known as councilmember deference gives individual City Council members veto power over housing development in their districts. Over the years, legislators have ruthlessly wielded this power to block citizens like Jeanne from accessing housing.

Meanwhile, in the Throggs Neck neighborhood of the Bronx, a recent fight over a modest rezoning proposal revealed the ridiculousness of current housing policies. Local Councilwoman Marjorie Velázquez used “member deference” to sow uncertainty over a mixed-income development in her district. The proposal included 192 affordable rental units for seniors and low-income veterans. The Council passed the plan last month, but only after a drawn-out battle. Public opposition to the development was often shaded by bigotry and vitriol; dog whistles like “protect the neighborhood” became common refrains. At one protest, opponents sprayed supporters with a hose.

Velázquez opposed the development for months, claiming she had concerns over parking and infrastructure and local hiring. However, on the day of a key Council vote, the Bronx politician changed course and announced she was supporting the project. She defended her actions, stating: “We need to build a better NYC…that does not mean that we remove the art of negotiation from our council members…member deference is not dead.”

Velázquez’s initial recalcitrance is galling because she committed to ending council member deference and increasing affordable housing during her 2021 primary campaign. Who was the councilmember negotiating on behalf of? Clearly not her constituents that need homes.

History appears to be repeating itself. Last week Councilwoman Shahana Hanif used member deference to dramatically shrink the scope of a development in her Park Slope-based district—ensuring little to no affordable units get built. And in Queens, Councilwoman Julie Won is fighting a development that would create 1,100 affordable units in Astoria.

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The consequence of limiting housing is becoming clear. Today a quarter of New York renters spend 50% of their income on housing. Undergirding the crisis is a deep under building of homes, which push prices up. There are virtually no apartments for rent in the city below $1,500 per month — a price middle-income residents can afford. Demand for government support reflects the deep need: 250,000 families are on the waitlist for public housing. A rent-stabilized apartment can come with a $20,000 broker’s fee.

Despite these struggles, Jeanne was able to find housing after 10 years of housing insecurity and time in the shelter system. In 2013, she landed an income-restricted apartment at the Allen Cathedral Senior Residences in Jamaica. It’s allowed her to thrive and remain independent.

In her time living at Allen Cathedral, she has become a community staple. She plans social events for the building, fights for better bus service as a member of the Riders Alliance and is active in her church. The senior residence has allowed Jeanne to age in place surrounded by community and she’s grateful for it.

“Everything’s on one floor. You don’t have to bend down too much to do too much stuff, and you have a nice closet space,” she told me.

The solution to the housing crisis is building more Allen Cathedral Senior Residences. It shouldn’t have taken Jeanne 10 years to luck into an affordable unit.

When folks talk about blocking housing or “protecting the neighborhood,” what they are really talking about is preserving a failed status quo. A status quo that elevates property rights over human rights, that makes housing a privilege and one that says a flooded $2,500 per month flooded apartment is just the cost of living in New York. What they’re talking about is making it harder for someone like Jeanne Majors — a parishioner, a neighbor, a community activist — to find a place to live.

Tomao is a former union organizer and political staffer. He is currently a student at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.