Affordable Housing and Plattsburgh's Downtown Revitalization Initiative
The following is an important footnote to a larger piece I'm writing on the $10M Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) grant the City of Plattsburgh received in 2016. The footnote is on a subject so important it deserves to stand out on its own as a post...
Despite the fact that we live in a city with a 23% poverty rate, where 57% of the population is considered financially distressed or ALICE, where income inequality is as pronounced as it is in Nigeria, and where housing costs for over half of all renters in Plattsburgh is unaffordable, discussions of affordable housing have been shockingly absent from the DRI.
Part of the reason why this conversation isn't happening is that when one utters the words "affordable housing," nearly everyone, even people that actually are in need of it as I'm about to define it, think of something like Pruitt-Igoe rather than something like Bailey Park in It's a Wonderful Life.
Affordable housing usually just means the following: People shouldn't be paying more than 30% of their take-home pay towards housing costs. Any more than 30% and it becomes difficult to cover all other non-housing related expenses. For example, if your take home pay is $1600 a month and your rent is $800 (50%), you're presumably going to be in a financially precarious situation with only $800 left to cover every other conceivable expense in your life. In the affordable housing industry we'd say such a person has a housing burden.
In Plattsburgh, where 62% of the population are renters, more than half of all renters in the city have a housing burden. That means approximately 6,000 people or one third of the entire city is in need of affordable housing.
As it stands now, the DRI neglects this problem altogether and is instead geared more towards building additional commercial property downtown where there is already an oversupply (there are dozens of vacant and underutilized buildings and storefronts), and in a country that has drastically overbuilt and over-leveraged commercial real estate, especially retail. Furthermore, although 45 residential units have also been proposed on the Durkee Street lot, it is highly likely that most or all of them will be geared towards an upscale clientele. Why? Consider three examples where the DRI has evaded the important subject of affordable housing:
First, the final DRI report submitted to the state for review notes: "The [DRI] Committee identified a handful of projects that were not eligible for DRI funding and/or not situated within the DRI boundary, but still priorities for future implementation. These include development of additional affordable housing options in Downtown Plattsburgh..." In other words, affordable housing is not on the DRI agenda, but to avoid sounding like the city and state are blatantly in favor of gentrification, the report notes that affordable housing funding will be made a priority later...when, we're not exactly sure....
Second, in a similar vein, consider how DRI committee member and President and CEO of The Development Corporation Paul Grasso noted matter-of-factly at a DRI committee meeting (at 1:02:53): "Well, I think you're going to have some displacement downtown as you improve the units and rents go up" (it is difficult to hear, but there is no denying he said this if you listen closely). Note how Grasso's colleague pretty much cuts him off to say "so you have to plan for that," again, to avoid blatantly and unabashedly embracing gentrification--in a manner very similar to the final DRI report above.
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| Data included in the 2016 "ALICE New York: Study of Financial Hardship" report |
Despite the fact that we live in a city with a 23% poverty rate, where 57% of the population is considered financially distressed or ALICE, where income inequality is as pronounced as it is in Nigeria, and where housing costs for over half of all renters in Plattsburgh is unaffordable, discussions of affordable housing have been shockingly absent from the DRI.
Part of the reason why this conversation isn't happening is that when one utters the words "affordable housing," nearly everyone, even people that actually are in need of it as I'm about to define it, think of something like Pruitt-Igoe rather than something like Bailey Park in It's a Wonderful Life.
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| Pruitt-Igoe Housing Projects in St. Louis |
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| Bailey Park in It's a Wonderful Life. Although it's a fictional affordable housing community, there's just as much fiction at work in popular representations of Pruitt-Igoe |
Affordable housing usually just means the following: People shouldn't be paying more than 30% of their take-home pay towards housing costs. Any more than 30% and it becomes difficult to cover all other non-housing related expenses. For example, if your take home pay is $1600 a month and your rent is $800 (50%), you're presumably going to be in a financially precarious situation with only $800 left to cover every other conceivable expense in your life. In the affordable housing industry we'd say such a person has a housing burden.
In Plattsburgh, where 62% of the population are renters, more than half of all renters in the city have a housing burden. That means approximately 6,000 people or one third of the entire city is in need of affordable housing.
As it stands now, the DRI neglects this problem altogether and is instead geared more towards building additional commercial property downtown where there is already an oversupply (there are dozens of vacant and underutilized buildings and storefronts), and in a country that has drastically overbuilt and over-leveraged commercial real estate, especially retail. Furthermore, although 45 residential units have also been proposed on the Durkee Street lot, it is highly likely that most or all of them will be geared towards an upscale clientele. Why? Consider three examples where the DRI has evaded the important subject of affordable housing:
First, the final DRI report submitted to the state for review notes: "The [DRI] Committee identified a handful of projects that were not eligible for DRI funding and/or not situated within the DRI boundary, but still priorities for future implementation. These include development of additional affordable housing options in Downtown Plattsburgh..." In other words, affordable housing is not on the DRI agenda, but to avoid sounding like the city and state are blatantly in favor of gentrification, the report notes that affordable housing funding will be made a priority later...when, we're not exactly sure....
Second, in a similar vein, consider how DRI committee member and President and CEO of The Development Corporation Paul Grasso noted matter-of-factly at a DRI committee meeting (at 1:02:53): "Well, I think you're going to have some displacement downtown as you improve the units and rents go up" (it is difficult to hear, but there is no denying he said this if you listen closely). Note how Grasso's colleague pretty much cuts him off to say "so you have to plan for that," again, to avoid blatantly and unabashedly embracing gentrification--in a manner very similar to the final DRI report above.
Finally, when asked what his affordable housing plan is at the first mayoral debate (see 31:36), Colin Read answered that he'd use DRI funds to turn underutilized upper floors of existing real estate into affordable housing units. However, now that the DRI upper floor fund (called the Downtown Grant Program) has actually been implemented, it doesn't prioritize affordable housing or even mention it. In fact, the program guidelines specifically prioritizes the construction of "high-quality" residential units which--let's face it--is code for a type of housing generally not reserved for the working poor.
Ah, affordable housing in Plattsburgh: We hide it away in the outskirts when we absolutely have to build it in space and we perpetually defer adequately funding it in time.
Ah, affordable housing in Plattsburgh: We hide it away in the outskirts when we absolutely have to build it in space and we perpetually defer adequately funding it in time.
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