By Dan Murphy
Yonkers City Councilwoman Shanae Williams has proposed legislation that will increase the percentage of affordable housing units that new development projects are required to set aside to 20 percent – double the current 10 percent.
Williams represents the First Council District, which includes the downtown and riverfront and also where most of the city’s $2 billion economic boom has taken place. “We have a housing crisis nationwide and certainly here in Yonkers,” she said. “The problem isn’t that we can’t get people to build and develop, but to get them to provide and build housing that people can afford.
“The people living in my district can’t afford to stay here because of high rents. We have more than 400 apartment units in my district and basically none of it is affordable. Half of the buildings and new development is grandfathered in and don’t have to abide by 10 percent affordable,” said Williams, who has also worked on the homeless issue in Yonkers.
“My goal is to double the number of affordable units being built to help people benefit from our economic growth and to give them an opportunity,” she continued. “This is something I have been passionate about since joining the council. I have lived in apartments all of my life and I know what it’s like to struggle. That’s what this is about.”
The legislation will go into committee and is a few weeks away from a council vote. The politics of the upcoming vote are most interesting. Democrats now hold a 5-2 supermajority on the council. Two council democrats, Council President Mike Khader and Councilwoman Tasha Diaz, are co-sponsors of Williams’ bill.
Two other council democrats, Majority Leader Corazon Pineda-Isaac and John Rubbo, along with council republicans Majority Leader Mike Breen and Anthony Merante, will also vote on the change. Four votes are needed to pass.
The ordinance then goes to Mayor Mike Spano for his signature, or veto. If he vetoes the bill, it will return to the City Council for an override vote, and if all five council democrats vote for 20 percent affordable housing, the mayor’s veto is overridden.
“Now that we have a supermajority of democrats on the council, we should be able to get it passed and become law,” said Williams. “It’s up to the mayor if he wants to veto, but we have five democrats on the council that can override his veto. This issue is that important… We have a growing issue of the homeless in Yonkers, and we now have homeless coming from NYC. If the people in my district can’t pay the rent, I’m concerned about them becoming homeless. We have to provide more homes for people to live in and that they can afford,” she continued.
Specifically, the legislation states: “This bill is intended to increase the affordable housing stock in the City of Yonkers, through a combination of increasing mandatory affordable units in housing developments, changing the affordability index to use the Yonkers AMI, and increasing penalties on developers who buy-out their obligation to provide affordable units in their developments.
Summary of proposed changes:
1. Threshold for receiving incentives for bonus affordable units adjusted from affordable units in excess of 20 percent of total units constructed – increased from 10 percent.
2. “Large multifamily housing developments” must provide 20 percent affordable units – increased from 10 percent.
4. “Medium multifamily housing developments” must provide 10 percent affordable units – increased from a flat minimum of two.
4. “Small multifamily housing developments” must provide a flat two affordable units – increased from a flat minimum of one.
5. In calculating the number of affordable units required, the city will now round up from a fraction of a unit greater than 0.3 for purposes of calculating mandatory units.
6. “Bare minimum” threshold for mandatory affordable units (units a developer cannot buy out) is increased to 10 percent from 5 percent.
7. Fee for buying out the obligation of providing an affordable housing unit has been changed to equal “the total construction cost of the development project divided by the maximum aggregate number of units authorized for construction in such development for each mandatory affordable housing unit not provided.” (Changed from a flat fee schedule.)
8. Owners of affordable units being put up for rent must now maintain affordability for 40 years, increased from a minimum of 30 in the existing statute.
9. Large multifamily units annual household income in the following proportion and income-eligibility ranges changed from 20 percent to 40 percent of the units shall be provided to households earning between 66 percent and 80 percent of AMI; and also changed from 40 percent to 20 percent of the units shall be provided to households earning between 81 percent and 100 percent of AMI.
10. Changes go into effect as of July 1, 2020.
