Alternative 1: Inducing supply through Tax Incentives
According to Lightfeldt (2015), unaffordability of housing in New York City originates from the idea that there is a shortage in houses that are available for rent. Inducing supply through tax incentives will be in a position to resolve this problem by increasing house supply to meet demand thus reducing price increase that results from increased house shortages. By adopting this policy, policymakers will be in a position to encourage developers of real residential developers of real residential to construct new houses designed to meet the needs of people living in the city. The rationale for Inducing Supply through tax incentive focuses on ensuring that there is a balance between supply and demand in the housing sectors, thus, pulling the prices downwards. The central argument is that demand is high than supply and has the effect of pulling prices upwards making it unaffordable by low-income earners.
Alternative 2: Rezoning to boost housing stock
Policymakers can call for a mandatory inclusionary zoning meaning that all developers and investors in the housing sector should include some affordable units aimed at making houses available among people in the low-income category. As a way of encouraging new building developers to adhere to this policy, there is a need for New York City to implement strategies such as offering a specific percent density bonus to new developers building (Grigsby, 2017). Since this process may be expensive to enact, policymakers may set a time frame within which they should offer the density bonus hoping that supply of affordable houses in New York City will exceed demand. This policy appears to be attractive to new developers because it encourages the construction of a higher number of affordable dwellings than that constructed in the restricting zoning approach. The objective for this policy is to attract many developers in the housing sector who need to enjoy the real density bonuses. Offering a particular percentage of gifts means that the majority of landowners and house builders will be in a position to change their construction in favour of serving low-income earners in the city.
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Alternative 3: Modernizing regulations to encourage growth
The existence of high construction costs, restrictive construction zoning, and challenges in securing funds for construction are the fundamental reasons as to why the supply of affordable housing remains behind the demand for houses. New policies through modernizing regulation strategy become an alternative solution that can be applied in reducing this challenge. For example, modernizing regulations to encourage growth may call for minimizing the construction for parking which may have a significant increase in the cost of constructing houses (Fields, 2015). If new developers minimize the sizes and number of parking that need to be built, they will save money to build many affordable units and also have a large space for building many houses thus meeting demand at an affordable cost (Fields, 2015). The goal for modernizing regulations to promote growth in the housing sector is to ensure that there is a reduction in construction costs for houses as well maximizing the utilization of space available to increase the availability of affordable apartments for low-income earners in the New York City.
Alternative 4: Empowering Struggling households
According to Botein & Reiss (2017), empowering struggling workers strategy calls for a need of ensuring that policymakers may choose to increase housing affordability among low-income earners by raising their level of income. Though rising salaries and wages may become a challenging policy to implement, New York City may achieve the set objective by providing indirect income increase through the provision of the income required to rent an apartment in the marketplace using transferable and sticky vouchers. If the process is to be effective, there is a need for ensuring that there is an alternative source of income rather than the employers. For example, there may be an establishment of mixed-income communities capable of raising funds required to meet housing problems. The rationale behind this policy is improving the lives of the majority of residents of New York residents who are incapable of acquiring living apartments because of low income and high prices associated with housing in New York City.
Alternative 5: Creating Independent affordable housing Authority
This strategic approach focuses on creating an independent body that has powers to bring private and public partnership approach in addressing the housing problem experienced in New York City. The private partnership model focuses on ensuring that there is a close and understanding among people in the private and public housing sectors thus creating a room housing development without criticisms from each industry (BARR, 2016). Policies of this nature such as the 42nd Street Development Corp have worked in solving problems in the neighborhood of the New York City thus providing a guiding tool for policymakers willing to implement this strategy (.Bloom & Lasner, 2016). The process for acquiring the funds can be easy without following complex approaches such as waiting for the mayor's implementation plan. The success of this policy means that people funds will come from the capital markets. The objective of setting this policy is to ensure that there is a redevelopment of the city’s old and dilapidated housing projects thus increasing the availability of houses.
References
Bloom, N. D., &Lasner, M. G. (Eds.). (2016). Affordable housing in New York: The people, places, and policies that transformed a city . Princeton University Press.
Botein, H., & Reiss, D. J. (2017). “Addressing New York City's Affordable Housing Crisis.”
Fields, D. (2015). Contesting the financialization of urban space: Community organizations and the struggle to preserve affordable rental housing in New York City. Journal of Urban Affairs , 37 (2), 144-165.
Fields, D. (2015). Contesting the financialization of urban space: Community organizations and the struggle to preserve affordable rental housing in New York City. Journal of Urban Affairs , 37 (2), 144-165.
Grigsby, W. G. (2017). Urban housing policy . Routledge.
Lightfeldt A., (2015). “ Solutions to New York City's Rent Affordability Problem.” Retrieved from: https://streeteasy.com/blog/solutions-nyc-rent-affordability/
M. BARR, J. New York City’s housing crisis. Retrieved from https://blog.oup.com/2016/09/new-york-housing-crisis/
