The Pratt Center for Community Development has just released a report: Time for a Gut Rehab: How the Next Governor Can Rebuild New York State's Affordable Housing Legacy.
Click on the name of the report for the full article -- and take a look at page 29 on DE-stabilizing tenants. Click on "read more" below to see the Pratt Center's news release summarizing the report, and some news coverage of the report below.
Pratt Center Releases Report Chronicling Failed Housing Legacy of Pataki Administration
As New Yorkers prepare to elect a new governor this fall, families in every corner of the state face a severe shortage of safe, decent, and affordable homes. From Buffalo to the Bronx, Suffolk County to Syracuse, housing costs have risen dramatically while incomes have declined. Downstate communities are among the least affordable in the country. Upstate cities face growing
abandonment and foreclosure rates.
Last Thursday, June 8, the Pratt Center for Community Development released
Time for a Gut Rehab: How the Next Governor Can Rebuild New York State's Affordable Housing Legacy. The report highlights the growing need in every part of the state, and reviews the shortcomings of the Pataki Administration in failing to address the affordable housing crisis over the past 12 years.
We find that Governor Pataki's housing policy has focused on meeting the needs of campaign contributors (especially large developers, the landlord lobby, and adult homes lobby) rather than on the needs of the public.
Funding has been cut, bond resources used unwisely, and tenant protections
eroded.
The next governor can, and must, do better. Our report reviews what other
governors are doing around the country and lays out targeted recommendations
to reclaim New York's legacy on affordable housing:
-
Increase investments in proven housing programs, and create a dedicated
housing trust fund;
- Preserve affordable housing for millions of New Yorkers
by strengthening rent laws and protecting at-risk units;
- Create a "fair
share/smart growth" plan for affordable housing that creates opportunity in
all of New York's regions;
- Implement a concrete plan to end homelessness;
and
- Reform the state's housing agencies and authorities.
A full copy of the report is available on the Pratt Center's website at
www.prattcenter.net.
Community and tenant groups, religious congregations, business leaders, and
labor unions are now coming together across the state to take action.
Housing First!, Housing Here and Now, and the Center for Community Change
are all coordinating efforts to push the next governor to take real leadership in addressing the housing crisis. To learn more, click here.
