Battery Park City Funds Should be Used to Finance Affordable Housing and Create Jobs

NEW YORK, NY (10/29/2009)(readMedia)-- The Governor's plan to reduce the deficit by sweeping upwards of $300 million in revenue from the Battery Park City Authority pulls the plug on New York City's and the affordable housing industry's power to create jobs and homes for New Yorkers at the worst possible time.

Right now, more than 1.3 million tenants and homeowners in the City cannot afford the cost of their housing. The City's shortage of affordable apartments for families earning less than $25,000 a year has reached 350,000. Homelessness is at record levels. The state has lost 219,000 private sector jobs since September, 2008. And, the City's unemployment rate reached 10 percent last month.

Sweeping the Authority's funds will deprive the City of $300 million in capital for investment in affordable housing. This will cost the City $1.8 billion more in financing from other sources. It will forestall production of 6,000 new apartments. It will prevent creation of 9,000 private-sector jobs during construction. And, it will stymie thirty-years of consumer spending by residents of the completed apartments that would sustain 79,000 private-sector jobs during the term of project financing.

These are the costs of the sweep.

And, coming on top of last spring's $111.5 million in budget cuts in the State's own housing capital programs (1), they add insult to injury. Those cuts cost the State more than $400 million in financing from other sources. They stymied production of more than 2,000 new units. And, they prevented the creation of more than 3,700 private-sector jobs during construction and more than 34,000 private-sector jobs through residency.

Together, the $300 million sweep and last spring's $111.5 million in budget cuts will more than cancel out the stimulus the State is getting from the $245 million in federal HOME and Tax Credit Assistance Program (TCAP) funds it is receiving through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

So, the $300 million sweep and last spring's budget cuts make no sense at this critical time when the State's budget-making and deficit reduction process should place the highest priority on preserving and expanding programs and investments that grow the state's economy and create jobs.

Housing First! is pleased to join with our fellow advocates on the steps of City Hall today to oppose the sweep and reassert the principle that the Battery Park City Authority's revenues should be used to finance more affordable housing in New York City.

(1) Housing Trust Fund, Affordable Housing Corporation, Homes for Working Families, Homeless Housing Assistance, and the Housing Finance Agency's All Affordable and Mitchell Lama Preservation program

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