Opinion: Reinventing our approach to affordable housing in NYC

Juan Ardila is a candidate for City Council in District 30. Photo courtesy of the campaign

By Juan Ardila 

Homelessness dominated the discourse in the last election for the 30th Council District in 2017, yet the candidate who prevailed, our Councilmember Robert Holden, has done nothing to address this growing challenge for our city and our district. 

Unlike other candidates past and present, I actually have experience with housing insecurity right here in the 30th Council District. I come at the issue of homelessness from a place of both empathy and dedication to actually do something about it. As of March 2020, over 60,000 people are sleeping every night in New York City’s shelter system — a 60 percent increase from 10 years ago. 

According to the Institute for Children, Poverty, and Homelessness (ICPH), one third of that number — over 20,000 — are children, which will increase as a result of the pandemic. As the city reopens and the end of the eviction moratorium approaches, we must consider how to help both the homeless and the 1 in 3 of our neighbors in the 30th District who were already on the brink of homelessness even before the pandemic.  

All sides of this debate seem to agree that shelters are at best only a band-aid solution for homelessness in the city. While the controversial shelter that the city opened in Glendale in recent years provides some of our homeless neighbors with a place to sleep, calling that shelter a band-aid would be generous given that it’s located in the middle of a transit desert. 

To even stand a chance of getting to work on time, myself and many other residents of my neighborhood who don’t live near one of our few subway stops rely on express bus service to Manhattan--service which costs $6.75 for a one-way ride. How can we ever expect homeless New Yorkers to get back on their feet if we house them on the outskirts of a neighborhood far from any job opportunities or social services they desperately need?  

The only permanent solution to homelessness is the Housing First model, which prioritizes providing permanent housing to people experiencing homelessness. Other cities have shown us the power of the Housing First model, most notably when Salt Lake City made national headlines in 2015 by reducing the chronically homeless population by 91 percent using this approach.

Fighting to create more affordable and permanent housing will be my top priority if I have the privilege of being elected to represent the 30th District but the fiscal situation in our city and state, in which our leadership inexplicably refuses to raise taxes on billionaires and instead balances our budgets on the backs of residents of places like the 30th District, will make this even more challenging than it would have been in the days of plenty before the pandemic. 

New Yorkers can’t wait for our tax revenues to bounce back to fund additional housing subsidies, so how can we create more permanent and affordable housing in a city with among the highest land and construction costs in the country while we wait for Albany or Washington to come to our aid? The answer is to allow for the safe construction and conversion of accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, near transit. 

You may not have heard of ADUs, but you have probably seen them around or may even live in one but know them by one of their many nicknames - in-law units, guest houses, granny flats - or one of their many locations — former garages, large attics, basements, backyards. While the 30th District has many older ADUs, unfortunately it’s been illegal to build or create new ones for decades, which has led to increased housing costs for those fighting for a limited supply of housing, with some of our neighbors even resorting to dangerous illegal conversions in order to secure affordable housing. 

This ban on ADUs is particularly tragic in our community given that many properties are perfect candidates for creating ADUs. Studies show that 44% of the affordable units in District 30 are projected to be slashed by 2022. By changing the rules around creating ADUs, the Regional Plan Association estimates that over 100,000 new legal and safe homes could be created in New York City and our community could be at the forefront of this movement. By changing the rules around creating ADUs, the Regional Plan Association estimates that over 100,000 new legal and safe homes could be created in New York City and our community could be at the forefront of this movement.  

Encouraging ADUs could be a win for everyone in the 30th District — they’re relatively inexpensive to create so they can be rented out at affordable rents without subsidies, they can provide additional income to homeowners struggling with growing property tax bills, and producing them would create construction jobs without the type of disruptive construction that affects neighbors’ quality of life. 

The only thing standing in our way of this win and many others is the political will to pursue solutions instead of sowing division, and that’s why I’m running to represent the 30th District in the City Council.

Juan Ardila is a candidate for Council District 30 . He is a graduate of St. Adalberts and Archbishop Molloy High School in Queens. He lives in Maspeth and works for a nonprofit legal organization.