Affordable Housing
CityViews: Affordable-Housing Advocates Must Listen to Opponents of Community Preference
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‘In a recent discussion, some very basic assumptions of our sector were challenged.’
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A map of community districts on the Brooklyn-Queens border. Fair-housing advocates have sued to end a city policy that gives residents of a particular district 50 percent of slots in new affordable housing built there.
‘In a recent discussion, some very basic assumptions of our sector were challenged.’
‘Real change only comes through the devolution of more decision-making power to the local level combined with accountable local decision-making bodies and elected officials.’
‘Social division serves those who need to divert attention from the injustices that play out daily in our political and economic systems.’
The current community preference system may have its flaws, the writer says, but simply calling for its elimination is irresponsible and callous after centuries of race-based zoning.
The distrust that has greeted Bill de Blasio’s rezoning proposals in some neighborhoods stems partly from a long history of racist policy of which the mayor is not part but needs to be aware.
In this op-ed, a veteran low-income housing developer says an ‘impending tsunami’ of federal budget cuts must force a rethink of Mayor de Blasio’s housing and zoning vision.