“Affordable” housing in New York City: A case of inclusionary zoning in Greenpoint-Williamsburg

Pramod, Sushma

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/105688 Copy

Description

Title

“Affordable” housing in New York City: A case of inclusionary zoning in Greenpoint-Williamsburg

Author(s)

Pramod, Sushma

Issue Date

2019-07-16

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

• Allred, Dustin
• Greenlee, Andrew J

Department of Study

Urban & Regional Planning

Discipline

Urban Planning

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

M.U.P.

Degree Level

Thesis

Keyword(s)

Affordable Housing, Inclusionary Housing Program, New York City

Abstract

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.

Graduation Semester

2019-08

Type of Resource

text

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/105688

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2019 Sushma Pramod

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