Saturday, November 9, 2019

Developers claim that the only way affordable housing can be built is if the workers are paid less

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Developers of low-cost housing and homelessness advocates say paying the prevailing wage will put them in the poorhouse. Three of the leading industry groups representing below-market builders joined with nonprofit homeless providers Tuesday to warn that a bill in the City Council obligating them pay union rates would roughly double their labor costs—and have a "crippling" impact on new construction.

"We urge the City Council to delay the vote on this bill until it is amended such that it will achieve its goals without crippling housing production and preservation or hampering the efforts to provide shelter to homeless New Yorkers," according to a joint statement by the the Supportive Housing Network of New York, the Human Services Council of New York, Homeless Services United, the New York State Association for Affordable Housing, LiveOn NY and Enterprise Community Partners.

Developers have battled prevailing wage rules for construction workers for years, but have generally enjoyed an amicable relationship with the bill's main beneficiary 32BJ SEIU, which represents janitors and other building employees.

Large projects in areas of the city rezoned under the de Blasio administration already must pay union-level wages.

The statement on Tuesday marked a change not only in who the industry is feuding with, but also in tactics: the release sent to Crain's linked resistance to the prevailing wage with the longstanding difficulties homelessness service providers have in receiving reimbursements from the city, and with the low standard of living experienced by many workers in the senior and indigent care sector.

"While we agree that all workers should be paid a living wage, we want to point out that the (primarily female) staff that work in affordable/senior housing and shelters have government-funded salaries that are far below those of non-prevailing wage building service workers," the group said. "This bill would exacerbate an already gaping pay—and gender gap."

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

If the workers are paid less, the results will be less safe.

“As I hurtled through space, one thought kept crossing my mind - every part of this rocket was supplied by the lowest bidder.” ― John Glenn

Anonymous said...

Well, duh.

Why does the left have such a problem with math?



Anonymous said...

Let these developers show us their tax returns! Why does the right always punish labor and not capital or management?

Anonymous said...

I have an idea stop selling our land to foreign developers and deport the illegals and then maybe the housing market can go back to normal and we wont have anymore need to keep building "affordable housing". Once you get the problems out of the picture, then things can start going back to normal like it used to be. Before I moved out of state in 2007, a 2 bedroom apartment here was 1200/month and now its up to 1900+per month depending on where you want to live. You need to start looking at what's REALLY driving up the cost of housing here and start making changes from there. But of course this is New York shitty where everything is just going backwards instead of forward. I'm glad I moved from there but my parents are still there.

Anonymous said...

You left your parents in a city as corrupt and dangerous as NYC
Do you hate them?

Anonymous said...

Sure screw the bottom of the rung workers and pay them less. Paying less is why we have such a major problem in the is country (and the world) and the hollowing out of the middle class. The developers, huge corporations, the billionaires and especially government are the root of the problems we face, not workers who just want paid a decent wage, where they can provide for themselves or family without working a 2nd job, own/rent a decent home, put their children thru college (if that is what they want), have good heath insurance (not costing a leg and an arm), a couple of vacations a year.

This was the whole idea of people voting for trump, but of course that did not pan out, because he is part of the problem (and the swamp). as well.

Our country did well when we had a thriving working middle class (the backbone of any society), but then came greedy corporations, NAFTRA, stagnant wages, career politicians, a fucked up two party system, opinion news (MSNBC, FOX) which stirs the pot and pits people against each other to the detriment of the working class while benefiting big corporations and government, exactly what Russia wants to happen. War is no longer the demise of society, it is FEAR, fake fear created by politicians and corporation. And who benefits from all of this...........not US.

Anonymous said...

Our society is failing because everyone is on drugs, not just illegal ones.

Prozac makes people careless.

See:

Popeyes Employee Made Chicken Sandwiches on Trash Bin, Owner Apologizes
https://www.tmz.com/2019/11/11/popeyes-employee-makes-chicken-sandwiches-over-trash-can/

And now we are full of pot heads!

TommyR said...

Oh those poor poor developers, Won't anyone think of how they might get slightly less millions in profit? Boo fucking hoo.

It's a wonder "affordable housing" ever got built in this city, thank god for developers and architects like Louis Allmendinger and G.X. Matthews and their foresight to build for working classes in Ridgewood and Maspeth.

https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/16/middle-class-homes-get-landmark-status/

https://www.brownstoner.com/history/queenswalk-mathews-company-row-houses/

"Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide, Volume 97 page 230 February 5, 1916