A new report from the Regional Plan Association (RPA) suggests that East Harlem may lose one-quarter of its affordable housing stock.
The Manhattan neighborhood has one of the highest concentrations of affordable housing, and has long been a haven for people who could not rent or own in other neighborhoods because of institutionalized discrimination. The neighborhood is becoming less welcoming, however, especially to low-income New Yorkers: Between now and 2040, Harlem could lose between 200 and 500 units of rent-stabilized and public (NYCHA) housing per year. Right now, there are an estimated 56,000 affordable units in the neighborhood.
The study, “Preserving Affordable Housing in East Harlem,” was produced with long-time collaborator Community Board 11. Any new affordable housing, the report concludes, should be made permanently affordable by “restructuring existing programs, or supporting community and public ownership models including community land trusts, land lease agreements and expanded public housing.”
The neighborhood is slated for rezoning under Mayor de Blasio’s intensive plan to create or preserve 200,000 units of affordable housing over the next decade. Unlike East New York, Brooklyn, the first neighborhood to undergo rezoning under de Blasio’s plan, East Harlem has gentrified palpably in recent years: When the New York Times includes your neighborhood on its “next-hottest” list, some say widespread residential displacement is not far behind.
Using the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development‘s (HPD) Office of Asset and Property Management, the city has managed to lengthen individual buildings’ affordability reactively, though the process would need to be restructured so buildings are designated permanently affordable as a matter of course. The East Harlem Neighborhood Plan coalition, which includes Community Voices Heard, CB 11, and the office of New York City Council Speaker (and district representative) Melissa Mark-Viverito, incorporated RPA’s work into their plan, which The Architect’s Newspaper covered when it was revealed last fall.
