The lack of affordable housing is putting many New Yorkers in a bind, especially those in low-income communities.
A situation that has led the Cuban Amado Phillips to have to sleep at friends’ houses and even many times in train stations because his pension was not enough to pay for his apartment.
“Now at this moment I am on the street, I am helpless because with the help that I receive, it did not give me to continue paying my rent and I had to abandon it,” said Amado.
Market-rate apartments in Manhattan are estimated to average $5,000 a month.
For those looking for an apartment in these times, the requirements are rigorous, including earning an annual salary 40 times higher than the monthly rent, having a good credit history, paying a month’s deposit and the first month’s rent in advance.
“They should more or less have more consideration for the people who work and fight to move New York forward,” added Amado.
And to try to address this harsh reality, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine released a report identifying places across the island where new housing could be built, including Washington Heights and Inwood.
“In the Washington Heights and Inwood areas, the situation is terrible, getting apartments if you don’t already have them is almost impossible because the costs, the rents are so high,” Levine said.
Levine and his team identified opportunities in about 170 locations, including more than a dozen in and around these areas.
Levine.
“Some are vacant lots, others are for example a one-story store where housing could be built above, in total 73,000 apartments could be built in Manhattan according to our plan and among them 30,000 affordable,” Levine added.
Dramatic rent increases in underserved communities are a disaster, even for middle-class families who can’t afford home prices, according to Levine,
“We have to push, if they are properties that belong to municipal agencies, we have to push those agencies to release them, if it is a matter of investment funds, we have to look for housing funds in our budget. Whatever you want, doing nothing is not an option, this is crisis,” Levine said.
Levine noted that Community District 12, which encompasses Washington Heights and Inwood, has produced the fewest housing units in the county since 2017, with just under 1,000 new homes.
