NYC Is Giving Public Lands to For-Profit Developers That Price Out Locals, Report Finds
Vice News
By: Roshan Abraham
New York City is giving away public lands to for-profit developers that build housing units largely unaffordable to locals, a new report has found.
The report, released today by the New York City Community Land Initiative (NYCCLI) found that nonprofit developers building on city-owned land made 38 percent of their units affordable to the most low-income bracket of New Yorkers, defined as 0-30 percent of the area median income, which in NYC is between 0-$38,130 for a family of three. By comparison, for-profit developers built 21.6 percent of their units at this income level. Of the “affordable” units that for-profit developers build on public lands, 14.6 percent are priced for renters making between $152,520 to $209,715 for a family of three. Public land is often sold to developers for low prices, and in some cases a symbolic $1.
A 2018 report from Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development found that between 2014 to 2018, 75 percent of all housing projects with city subsidies went to for-profit developers. NYCCLI’s data also show that between 2014 and 2023, nonprofit developers built or rehabilitated 7,269 homes on public land, compared to 14,150 units by for-profit developers.
