In Queens, the vibrancy of immigrant communities is more than apparent. And so are housing problems: Queens is the borough with the lowest vacancy rates and where illegal units and overcrowding is common.
This is why two major projects must have a higher bar of affordability.
In Willets Point, the Bloomberg administration has proposed to convert 61 acres with industrial businesses to a mixed-use development. This has raised objections, and rightfully so, to the possible use of eminent domain and to a 20 percent affordable housing standard currently being negotiated.
A 20 percent, even 30 percent, affordability goal is too low. With city-owned land shrinking and luxury condominiums gentrifying neighborhoods, low to moderate to middle-income housing must be emphasized, with those brakcets reflecting the reality of neighborhood and city income levels.
In Hunters Point South, the administration has proposed a market-rate and middle-class development. The limited affordable units will be open to families earning $55,000 to $158,000. This is way too high. The median income for a family in the city is $46,480. An affordable housing scheme that excludes half of the population is the housing equivalent of a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Hunter’s Point is home to a longstanding Latino community, one that would be largely shut out of these plans.
Middle-income housing is needed. But an entire development that excludes low to moderate-income families doesn’t jibe with missions of reducing poverty or creating a city of economic opportunity for struggling New Yorkers.
Councilmen Hiram Monserrate and Eric Gioia, who represent the areas in which these projects would sit, must hold the line for working families. The City Council should not stamp projects that leave vulnerable New Yorkers behind.
