August 20, 2020

The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is considering creating a Public Housing Preservation Trust to address the decades of dilapidation and disinvestment plaguing New York City public housing. The plan uses the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s own rules to work around traditional funding formulas and would increase the allocation of tenant vouchers to NYCHA from 2,000 to 100,000. NYCHA chair Gregory Russ states that, in response to uncertainty about future federal funding, the new funding structure would create self-sufficient properties.

This week, Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Ben Carson coauthored an op-ed with President Trump in support of single-family zoning in the suburbs, which they said is necessary to abate “crime and chaos.” This contradicts Secretary Carson’s previous support for reducing zoning restrictions to increase affordable housing options. “The correlation seems very strong: The more zoning restrictions and regulations, the higher the prices and the more homeless people,” Carson said just last year. This week's op-ed comes as the Trump administration dismantles the 2015 Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule, which aimed to support communities in addressing housing segregation and inequities.

A new residential model known as “rental equity” or “dividend housing” requires renters to attend tenant meetings and maintain their properties, and in exchange, they are guaranteed permanently affordable rent and financial credits they can exchange for cash when their lease is up. If the program proves to be successful, Renting Partnership, the organization running it, will seek more investors to implement it on a larger scale. “This will work not just in Cincinnati, but elsewhere,” states Margery Spinney, cocreator of the financial model.

At the same time as the coronavirus pandemic has exposed rental insecurity and caused an economic recession, more people are purchasing properties. Despite the current economic crisis, the demand for a limited stock of available homes has increased housing costs around the country. Low interest rates and the draw of more space and stability prompt many to move, but housing experts warn that first-time homebuyers with lower incomes, who are more vulnerable to changes in economic conditions, could be affected by expiring pandemic protections.