Testimony to the New York City Council
Finance Committee & Committee on Housing and Buildings
Executive Budget Hearing for FY2025
May 14, 2024
Good afternoon, Committee Chairs Brannan and Sanchez and members of the Finance and Housing Committees, and thank you for the opportunity to testify. My name is Will Spisak and I am a Senior Program Associate at New Economy Project, a citywide organization that works with community groups to build a just economy based on cooperation, racial and neighborhood equity, and ecological sustainability. Through coalition organizing, legal and policy advocacy, and other strategies, we challenge systemic wealth extraction and advance policies and institutions that expand democracy, economic cooperation, and community-led development.
New Economy Project co-founded and coordinates the NYC Community Land Initiative, a citywide coalition that has been at the forefront of expanding community land trusts (CLTs), as vehicles for securing deeply and permanently affordable housing and equitable neighborhood development. Over more than a decade of zealous organizing and advocacy, we have made major progress: today, New York City is home to more than 20 CLTs working to address root causes of our city’s affordability crisis, combat displacement, and promote self-determination in low-income and Black and brown neighborhoods across the five boroughs.
The City Council has been a critical partner in this critical work – channeling $6 million since FY2020 to CLT organizing and technical assistance through the citywide Community Land Trust discretionary funding initiative; advancing the Community Land Act bill package, to help CLTs bring more land and housing into community stewardship; and more.
We urge the Council to redouble its commitment to CLTs and permanently affordable social housing, by ensuring the city’s FY2025 budget includes:
- Enhanced funding of $3 million for the citywide Community Land Trust (CLT) Initiative, to meet the growing demand for CLTs and support three new CLT initiatives;
- $2.5 billion in capital funding for permanently affordable housing, as outlined in the Homes Now, Homes for Generations platform; and
- $3.2 billion for NYCHA repairs and infrastructure upgrades.
Enhanced funding of $3 million for the CLT Initiative in FY25 (up from $1.5 million in FY24) will support 17 grassroots CLTs and 4 citywide technical assistance organizations working to bring land and housing into community stewardship. (See attached one-pager.)
As coordinators of the citywide CLT Initiative, New Economy Project works with community groups and citywide organizations to deliver comprehensive community organizing, education, training, and technical assistance to support the formation and expansion of CLTs. The initiative engages thousands of New Yorkers each year – from low income tenants organizing against predatory landlords to homeowners at risk of foreclosure, small and worker owned businesses, and many other stakeholders. As the demand for CLTs grows, and emerging CLTs reach their next stages of growth, enhanced CLT Initiative funding is needed to sustain and build on this momentum.
CLTs are powerful bulwarks against real estate speculation and displacement. Since 1994, the Cooper Square CLT on Manhattan’s Lower East Side has preserved more than 320 deeply affordable apartments and two dozen affordable storefronts in 21 buildings – and is now expanding to bring two additional rent-stabilized buildings into CLT stewardship. In recent years, East Harlem El Barrio CLT, East New York CLT, Mott Haven Port Morris Community Land Stewards, ReAL Edgemere CLT, and others have organized thousands of residents; won RFPs to develop public land; acquired and rehabilitated multifamily buildings; led neighborhood planning efforts; and launched campaigns to convert vacant land to vibrant community, health and cultural spaces.
Capital funding of $2.5 billion over four years for permanently affordable housing will enable CLTs and other mission-driven nonprofits to seize opportunities to create, rehabilitate, and preserve urgently needed affordable homes. We join with dozens of other community and affordable housing groups, the City Council Progressive Caucus, NYC Comptroller Brad Lander, and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams in urging the city to adopt the Homes Now Homes for Generations platform, which would significantly expand HPD’s Neighborhood Pillars and Open Door programs.
These measures are urgently needed to address our city’s worsening affordability crisis. One in three New Yorkers are severely rent-burdened, paying more than 50% of their incomes on rent, and a record 100,000+ people are living in shelters. Between 2017 and 2021, NYC lost almost 100,000 units that had rented for less than $1,500 per month. A recent report found that NYC rents are rising at seven times the rate of wages.
As we work to expand CLTs and the supply of permanently affordable housing, New York City must protect its vital public housing stock. We join public housing residents and activists in calling for $3.2 billion for NYCHA repairs and upgrades, to ensure safe and dignified living conditions for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers living in NYCHA housing.
Thank you again for the opportunity to testify today.