The city’s churches, mosques and synagogues, many of which have lots of land, declining congregations and underutilized facilities, are pleading with Albany to make it easier for them to develop affordable housing. City Controller Brad Lander and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams are pushing for new investments in affordable home ownership. Speaker Adrienne Adams proposes building housing on library sites — and modernizing the branches at the same time. And she is urging that Aqueduct Racetrack be transformed into housing when the horses are put out to pasture.
Yes, yes, yes and yes. A city with costs of living far too high for most families simply cannot turn down a single smart opportunity to create more places for people to live. This is not just about high-profile fights to build tall buildings where some people would rather have less density, or passing a replacement to the expired 421-a tax credit that greased the gears for development.
It means capitalizing on fallow city and state plots; upzoning, especially near transit; allowing granny flats, also known as accessory-dwelling units; and reaching for other relatively low-hanging fruit that could unlock opportunity for countless current and future New Yorkers.
The Faith-Based Affordable Housing Act, introduced by Sen. Andrew Gounardes and Assemblyman Brian Cunningham, is long overdue. It would ease a number of restrictions so that hundreds of religious congregations that want to repurpose their property to build new homes could do so far more easily — finally letting them build as of right on their own land. Religious institutions control a whopping 4.6 billion square feet of real estate, some of which could be used for homes.
Libraries can be part of the solution, too. Witness the opening late last year of a brilliant new branch of the Brooklyn Public Library in Sunset Park — beneath 75 units of affordable housing, thanks to a partnership between the BPL and the Fifth Avenue Committee. An old library went away, replaced with a new one, nearly twice the size — along with places for people to live. That model ought to be replicated all across the city, to deliver improved community amenities along with more residents to enjoy them.
As for Aqueduct, this Editorial Board has been talking up the idea of trading stables for stable homes since way back in 2007, when we wrote, “The land might be better used for critically needed affordable housing, schools or even a park.” In 2013, we said, “The track’s irreversible downward slide long ago made clear that the 210 acres on which Aqueduct sits in southern Queens should be put to more productive use. Think of all the affordable housing that could occupy the tract.”
We’re happy to have an ally in Speaker Adams — and now need to make sure that Gov. Hochul, who’s wisely made housing development a cornerstone of her agenda, pushes ahead, as she has with the hugely underutilized Creedmoor campus a half hour drive away.
A report by state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said housing costs in the metro area average more than $30,000 a year — and are up 68% over the past decade. Yet despite a million households qualifying as rent burdened, meaning the spend more than 30% of their income on rent, housing production is lagging.
The answer is to build, and build, and then build some more.
