NEW YORK CITY—Although few would dispute the need for a bigger supply of affordable/low-income housing, it's less clear how the public or private sectors would go about paying for it. That's the case especially when, as experts in the sector pointed out during last week's symposium on affordable housing, the per-unit expense of keeping the lights on at an affordable complex isn't so far below the tenant's monthly rent payment. Sponsored by the Museum of the City of New York, the well-attended event at the New York Academy of Medicine reportedly was the first-ever symposium on affordable housing's past, present and future.

With approximately 25% of the city's residents living in rent-regulated apartments, moderator Sam Roberts of the New York Times asked John Banks, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, whether rent regulation presented an obstacle to getting new housing built. Roberts cited a newly issued report from the Independent Budget Office that found that 23% of the apartments subject to rent regulation were rented at lower rates than the maximum allowed.

Banks did not see rent regulation per se as a challenge to development. However, he said, “It certainly changes the financial dynamic by which you can finance the construction of new buildings.” Citing the de Blasio administration's requirement of a higher percentage of affordable units in projects that consist mainly of market-rate housing, Banks pointed out, “If you want to preserve those units as rent-regulated through the entirety of the program, there's a cost associated with that and you need to come up a way in order to pay for it.”

The REBNY president was part of a panel at the museum's “Affordable Housing: What About the Future?” symposium that also included Rafael Cestero, president and CEO of the Community Preservation Corp.; Ron Moelis, CEO and chairman of L+M Development Partners Inc.; Richard Roberts, managing director of acquisitions at Red Stone Equity Partners LLC; Ismene Speliotis, executive director of the Mutual Housing Association of New York; and Saky Yakas, partner with SLCE Architects. Their hour-long discussion, held in conjunction with the museum's exhibit on the history of affordable housing, covered topics ranging from subsidies to build and preserve lower-income housing to the role that infrastructure plays in the livability of the neighborhoods where such housing is built.

Representing the public sector in New York was the evening''s first speaker, deputy mayor Alicia Glen. “Housing production and preservation, especially of affordable housing, is not only in the domain of city government now”—having formerly been the exclusive province of the federal government—'but has really become an obligation, essential to what a good, positive and progressive city government can do,” she said.  

The de Blasio administration is undertaking a review of the city's zoning and planning history. “In order to become a more affordable city, we do need to become a denser city while we simultaneously invest in infrastructure and services that will make our neighborhoods more livable,” said Glen.

To spur its plan to build or preserve 200,000 affordable housing units over a decade, the administration plans to mandate inclusionary housing as part of any rezonings that substantially increase potential housing capacity in strong markets. “We're not just going to encourage people to build affordable housing anymore; we're going to require it,” Glen said.

With $42 billion allocated, “Our affordable housing plan is probably the most ambitious in the history of the US,” she said. “But we're making really tangible progress.” At present, Glen said, there's more affordable housing being citywide built since the days of the Mitchell-Lama program. In order to keep up the pace, though, “we need a bigger tent of stakeholders. The public sector and private sector have to be more collaborative than ever before.”

The keynote speaker, former Rep. Barney Frank, who with fellow Democrat Charles Rangel introduced legislation that led to the enactment of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program, said that historically, affordable housing has gotten less attention than healthcare and education for lower-income Americans—but deserved to be on the same agenda. “I'm a big believer that when you talk about the defects in education,” as evinced by lower-income students lagging behind, “the absence of a decent place to sleep, to study and eat is clearly a factor in the disparate impact. We are asking teachers to overcome housing deficiencies.”

Along with stressing the importance of increasing awareness of affordable housing's benefits both among the voting public and among lawmakers—including a number of Frank's liberal-minded Democratic colleagues—the former Congressman also raised the question of how to fund it. His proposed solution drew vigorous applause, although it might have gotten quite a different response before another audience: “We have to reduce the military budget of the United States,” he said. “Let's not kid ourselves.”