Thursday, February 6, 2020

Mayor de Blasio proposes housing fund program for basements, backyard sheds and upzoning garages

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THE CITY

The de Blasio administration wants to make it easier for homeowners to legally add apartments in basements, atop garages — and even in backyard tiny houses — to boost affordable housing.

The plans, shared Wednesday with THE CITY, entail easing parking requirements as well as supplying low-interest loans to finance construction that would bring the new digs up to code.

“The key to unlocking more housing for New Yorkers is just below our feet,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement. “Legalizing basement apartments will give homeowners a new way to make ends meet and give thousands of New Yorkers an affordable place to live.”

He’s expected to formally announce the effort Thursday during his State of the City address at the American Museum of Natural History.

The city plans to set aside $150 million in capital funds for the loans. Zoning changes woud address rules that currently require additional parking spaces for new apartments in many residential areas — action that could take at least two years, the mayor’s office indicated.

De Blasio administration officials expect at least 10,000 safe and affordable units could be added to the housing-starved city within the next decade under the proposed changes, which require City Council approval.

The new dwellings could even include “tiny homes in a backyard,” City Hall officials said, though they didn’t offer details.

The Pratt Center for Community Development estimates that New York City already has as many as 114,000 occupied basement apartments.

Will Spisak of Chhaya Community Development Corporation, a housing advocacy group, said he was “cautiously optimistic” about the new de Blasio plan.“if this really does allow for easier basement conversion experiences, and allowed folks to create accessory dwelling units on their property, this could be really transformative for a lot of homeowners,” said Spisak, the organization’s director of housing justice.

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

"The new dwellings could even include “tiny homes in a backyard,” City Hall officials said, though they didn’t offer details."
---

And here we've arrived: third world shanty towns in our backyards. Maybe if there's not enough houses, there are just too many people?

Anonymous said...

Sure,now it's a legal 2 family. Now the city can raise your taxes on the structure. Not to mention you'll have to pay for electric and water meters to be installed.

Anonymous said...

Now they'll be able to tax you as a 2 family. Who pays for water and electric meters to get connected? That's right, YOU!

Anonymous said...

He should move into one !

Anonymous said...

NONONONONO! A thousand times NO! This would finally turn Queens into a third world type city in a hurry. Do we want to live like this? Cheek by jowl? NO. That is the whole point of zoning-- to keep idiocy like this from happening. Jesus, this Big Bird is such an idiot! When is he finally out of office? I thought this idea had died a few years ago. Sheesh!

BLPBW said...

Why can’t anyone accept that we have simply run out of space? If I show up at a hotel, and there are no more rooms left, I don’t request that they build more rooms. I go to another hotel. Folks, please go somewhere else.

georgetheatheist said...

How about tree houses?

Anonymous said...

The gears on this have been turning for quite a wile.
You must agree to take section 8 tenants, including homeless and all the problem people the city hands you.
Its a plan to push more diversity and destroy neighborhoods the mayor doesn't like.
Once your property is on a section 8 contract you can not reverse it.

Coming next is a hefty tax on underutilized space to crush homeowners into submission. That will be based on the upcoming new census where the polling workers will enter and count every property. Renting garages may also become illegal, only cars registered to the homeowner can go in them.
The mayor is copying from Russia and Scandinavian socialist country's

Anonymous said...

I've walked passed a few driveways on my way to the Broadway LIRR station where it's obvious that the (large) garages are being used as apartments - some of them have skylights and air conditioners.

Anonymous said...

Ah, the slumification of NYC continues apace. I'm sure it will do wonders for property values to have 20 Chinese illegals living in the basement next door, to have low income people living in the midst of a nice neighborhood and bringing their wonderful low income habits right along with them, and to have one's children in close proximity with these people. I have seen, over and over, that when people who cannot afford a neighborhood are subsidized in some way so that they can live in that neighborhood, problems ensue.

Anonymous said...

What we really need is more illegal immigration to pad the demacractic demographics then one party can VOTE itself new housing or anything else .global consumption,heating,cooling,carbon footprint or any danger to the Republic be dammed...

Anonymous said...

Sounds great until your new basement tenant never pays the rent, wrecks the place, and the protection laws the City enacted means he gets to live there forever on your dime.

Anonymous said...

Won’t work for me. I’m in an attached house and my tin garden shed is in the back yard. They would have to come through my house to get to the tiny shed. As for my garage parking is so tight here I need my garage to park my car. This plan does not sound right to me.

Anonymous said...

Mayor de Blasio and the City Council along with the Gov and The NY State Senate and Assembly are passing so many bad laws and regulations that we have become a Shite-Hole City !
The Federal Government is trying to protect us from these Electurd ! A recent example is the Green Light DMV law that gives NYS Driver Licenses to illegals. Today the DHS suspended Global Entry the Trusted Traveler Programs for New York residents in response to crazy NYS sanctuary laws ! God Help us all !

Anonymous said...

I am so done with this Mayor and NYC. What the hell is this all about!!!

Anonymous said...

They're already doing it. But then the people who do it should pay more taxes then for a multifamily house. If you're going to do it like that, then make them pay their fair share of taxes.

Anonymous said...

Ayyyy! Mr D!

Anonymous said...

Blasio is a f-ing idiot. Lower the damn rent already.

Anonymous said...

You can get a cot in my shed if you move the garden tools,I'll through in the lawnmower bag for a pillow
What's it worth to you Blaz?

Anonymous said...

Heres a better idea. Start deporting these illegals and then maybe you will have more space available for citizens and rent can go down.

Anonymous said...

Look guys, we know what the problem is, we know what will happen, and we all see this like a house going down the street on wheels.

The real problem is the lack of understanding, or even interest, in civic engagement with the public. Post this on your local Facebook, and get what 15 comments.

Post that a local eatery, say a pizza parlor is shuttered, and you get 85.

Focus on that and maybe you might make some progress. Until you do, all you get is a place to harmlessly vent, right here.

Anonymous said...

DeBastard is talking as if illegally-converted basements, with multiple tenants who are in this cou try illegally, don't exist.

Anonymous said...

>Coming next is a hefty tax on underutilized space to crush homeowners into submission. That will be based on the upcoming new census where the polling workers will enter and count every property.

Bullshit. The Federal Government can't even use census data that way - the City government has no access to that sort of census information at all.

On the other hand, your tax reports are available to government entities. If the City wanted to find out how many people officially live in a dwelling, that's the route they'd take.

Anonymous said...

I lived in a rooming house on the top floor of a two family in Astoria on 28th Street. The basement has a tenant paying rent by cash. the first and second floor are legitimate. The top floor is a 2 bedroom apartment made into a 4 bedroom rooming house. Only shared spaces are the tiny kitchen and bathroom. Constant problems with the electricity being shut off and water issues.
The landlord was not paying taxes on that income in the basement and didn't know about the illegal rooming house. so no one was paying taxes on that money.

This is to further tax the property owner. At the rooming house, the shady Greek Manager, Steve, told us to throw the garbage in public garbage cans by the subway. This adds to the city's sewer, sanitation and other costs.

The push for this is not to house people because if they really wanted to do it the city would not contract with unethical agencies that milk the homeless.
Look at who commandeers these agencies that have such close ties to NYC HRA - Human Resources Administration known as welfare. They are the so called oppressed minorities and immigrants- the majority from South America, the Caribbean and Pakistan/India.
Have you been to LaGuardia Airport lately? You will see the same homeless faces, mostly males, who seem to have serious mental health issues. Yet the Volunteers of America office that is contracted to assist the homeless is never open, is unreachable. Why are they being paid with our tax dollars to sit in an office and do nothing but collect inflated paychecks?

Anonymous said...

"this could be really transformative for a lot of homeowners"
And HELL for their neighbors. The very reason we need strong zoning!

Anonymous said...

We have been buried under junk mail from people getting elected this year. Compare the issues in their literature to what we see posted here. Everyone knows about these stories. Its as obvious as your hand before your face. But not them. Not even a whimper.

There is a big disconnect between most people and their values. They care about immigration, identity politics, all sorts of stuff. But the things you see on this blog, as this issue, naw. No interest.

Why is that? What can be done?

Anonymous said...

"Bullshit. The Federal Government can't even use census data that way"

If a Democrat president and a couple seats in the Senate get elected it sure will.
People said "Bullshit, Oh never happen" when Obama ran for president.
We have a lot of stupid desperate people voting.

Anonymous said...

DeBlasio can’t figure out how to incentivize the builders of affordable housing so this is what he, no, he’s too lazy and dumb, his people came up with?

I have wonderful two floor homes in my neighborhood turned into apartment rentals and the garages were converted into rentals. People come and go. I don’t degrudge people needing to rent. Some are very nice people.

The homes garages were converted to apartments. Very dangerous at night when trying to park and some garages are rentals.

Anonymous said...

What is that Loud Flushing noise l keep hearing.

Anonymous said...

What about treehouses?

Anonymous said...

>If a Democrat president and a couple seats in the Senate get elected it sure will.
>People said "Bullshit, Oh never happen" when Obama ran for president.

People said that if Obama got elected he'd make himself dictator. People said if Trump got elected he'd make himself dictator. Both were wrong. Census data has been kept separate from politics for over 200 years already. Do you really think that the next President would commit a constitutional crime and discredit the census forever just so that the next Mayor of NY can find a new way to tax people? Especially when they can legally look at tax returns, housing inspections, and all sorts of other local data get the same information?