Weiner Seeks Federal Help To Add 'Affordable' Housing

By BENJAMIN SARLIN, Special to the Sun
April 30, 2008

Rep. Anthony Weiner of Queens is pushing a plan to increase "affordable" housing in the city that seeks to secure billions of dollars more from the federal government to expand Section 8 vouchers, add more public housing units, and encourage private developers to create housing for low- and middle-income residents.

"The federal government has gotten out of the housing business," Mr. Weiner, a likely candidate for mayor in 2009, told reporters yesterday in Manhattan.

About 28% of New York City renters — about 529,000 people — spend more than half of their income on rent, up from 22.7% in 2002, according to a report released by Mr. Weiner yesterday.

Staten Island residents were the most affected by increasing rents — the percentage of tenants in the borough putting more than half their income toward rent shot up to 27.3% in 2006 from 19.4% in 1999, a more than 40% increase. About 33% of renters in the Bronx spent more than half their income on housing in 2006, the most of any borough, versus 22.6% in Manhattan, the lowest percentage, according to the report.

"It is almost an article of faith in New York City that it's expensive finding places to live and there's the old saw that financial advisors say that you should spend no more than a third of your income on rent," Mr. Weiner said yesterday. "That is seeming more and more not like a rule of thumb, but a pipe dream."

He suggested that the city revise its "80/20" program, in which tax-exempt bonds are issued in order to finance buildings with 80% market rate housing and 20% low-income housing. Mr. Weiner said the city should fund a "60/20/20" program, under which 20% of housing would go to middle-income housing, and 20% to low-income housing.