Is our housing situation like New York's?

Recently I was passed along a very interesting and hopeful document put together by the City of New York and the office of Bill de Blasio.  Now I wouldn't normally say that Bill de Blasio and I have a lot in common (and I am sure that we don't other than we eat food and breath air and happen to be the mayor of our respective city...), but the items that he outlines in this document sound surprisingly familiar...

Here is his introductory letter:
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To My Fellow New Yorkers:

We have a crisis of affordability on our hands.
It’s a crisis in many ways built on New York City’s success. We are a safer, more welcoming city than we were decades ago. People from all over the world come to study, to work or to start a business here.

And that success story has put pressure on our housing stock. Coupled with ever-rising economic inequality, it has created a painful reality where more and more New Yorkers are spending more and more to cover their housing costs, and entire neighborhoods have lost their affordability. Affordable housing is part of the bedrock of what makes New York City work.

It’s what underpins the economically diverse neighborhoods New Yorkers want to live in. It’s critical to providing financial stability for working families, helping them get ahead and build a better life.

And that is why today, we are laying out a comprehensive plan to build and preserve 200,000 affordable units over the coming decade, to support New Yorkers with a range of incomes, from the very lowest to those in the middle class. This is a plan to get ahead of the curve, to protect neighborhoods, and build our city’s next generation of affordable housing.

It’s about knitting communities together. Our affordable housing policies must reach every New Yorker in need, which is why this plan thinks big about the changes we need to make—in government and in the private sector—to make this a city where everyone rises together, and everyone has a safe and decent home.

If you’re in a community where affordability is disappearing, we want to protect it. If your family lives in a rent-regulated apartment, this plan is focused on helping you keep it. If you’re a senior trying to remain in the neighborhood you helped to build, we are fighting to help you stay. If you are a building owner or developer intent on building or preserving affordable apartments, we will support you.

This is a five-borough, ten-year plan. It will marshal people and resources from every corner of this city behind a singular purpose: to make this city again a place where our most vulnerable, our working people, and our middle class can all thrive. Together, let’s make that vision a reality.
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As far as I am concerned Mr. de Blasio hits the nail on the head when he says that affordable housing is "part of the bedrock" that makes his, and just about any, city work.

I also agree that affordable housing is essential to properly knit neighborhoods and communities together.  It is very hard to have a cohesive community if some of your residents are struggling to find one of the basic elements of survival.  It fosters disdain and prevents some from engaging with others... We don't like to admit this, but it often is true, going both ways.

I do find it interesting, however, the reasons for this problem in New York and how that differs from Grand Marais in substance only.  The popularity of New York has drawn more people in, similarly the popularity of Grand Marais is drawing people in... however it seems that most of the people coming up here aren't coming to study or work or start businesses, but to retire, relax, and recreate (which in its own way is a very good thing!).  The economic ripple of these activities is definitely not the same.

The Executive Summary of the article could apply almost directly to Grand Marais... Just change the city name and things sound very familiar:  It speaks of stagnating incomes and rapidly increasing housing costs, it speaks of the right every resident has to live in a neighborhood that gives them the things they need to succeed, it states that high rent-burden on a community is damaging to its economy, it speaks of supply and demand (people staying in their houses longer and thus not turning over those houses to younger families... largely because there aren't options for older adults to move to!), and how the private sector has not produced adequate housing to meet the need.

New York City is proposing the building of 200,000 units of affordable housing over the next 10 years throughout the 5 boroughs of their city.  If you take a look at the math, if you scaled the project down to the size of Grand Marais, we would be adding around 30 units of affordable housing in the next 10 years to match their initiative... That isn't actually that many.  Three units of housing a year?  How can we make that work?

To add to this conversation, those living below or at the poverty line in New York City measure around 20% of the total population, where in Grand Marais that number fluctuates around 10%.   So, if you wanted to be cynical about this, we could say that Grand Marais could then build roughly half of those units of housing... except that we don't just have a problem with affordable housing for people near the poverty line.  We have lost Deputies, nurses, doctors, administrators, etc because of this housing situation and its affect on middle class wage earners too.  I mention this to support the idea that 30 housing units could be about right, if not a little low for our situation!

These are the things they seek to do in New York:

• Fostering diverse, livable neighborhoods 
• Preserving the affordability and quality of the existing housing stock 
• Building new affordable housing for all New Yorkers 
• Promoting homeless, senior, supportive and accessible housing 
• Refining City financing tools and expanding funding sources for affordable housing
• Planning and land-use needs to be re-vamped

• Economic diversity should be the cornerstone of development
• Municipal tools and assets need to be used more effectively
• Protect past municipal investments by finding ways to lock in affordability
• Take advantage of current opportunities/incentives (low interest rates, attention on this subject)
• Increase funding for housing programs

Their plan is broken down so that 60% of the housing units would be renovation/preservation of existing affordable housing stock and 40% would be new construction.  Again, scaling this to Grand Marais, this would mean 18 units of housing would be renovated/preserved and 12 units would be constructed.  Does that work here?  Could that work here?

Ok, but how are they going to fund this?  Mayor de Blasio's office states that this project will cost around $41.4 billion over 10 years.  Scaled to Grand Marais size this would be a little over $633,000 over 10 years or $63,000/year or a little over $20,000/unit average.  That DOES sound do-able, but can we get good, long-term affordable housing for that amount in our community?

New York is going to be re-distributing money in the city's budget to accomplish this in addition to applying for state and federal funding in addition to pursuing partnerships with private industry in addition to partnering with other funds that could contribute...

We have many resources at our disposal as well; however, much, much more limited than New York's... This is going to be a continued area of investigation of course.  Is it possible for the City of Grand Marais to arrange and fund a project, with partnerships of course, that could provide affordable housing for every resident?  What are the downsides to this?  Why hasn't it happened in the past if it is so important?

There are many, many more questions that go into this conversation.  I am interested to engage more specifically in these questions and help to formally engage the City into the process of working to solve the housing issues that have been identified.  What will that look like?  I don't know.  We will get some answers if we keep thinking and looking at it though.

*So, this is a very basic exploration in the New York City project.  Here in Cook County we have had many explorations into this situation and I do believe that creating a housing plan similar to this NYC plan would be a very, very good idea.  What do YOU think about the NYC project or how Grand Marais could move forward to help address this situation in our community?