Over 4,000 luxury apartments sit unoccupied (“warehoused”) in just six New York City neighborhoods, according to a study conducted by Right to the City, an organization dedicated to promoting housing equality in the United States. A growing number of concerned citizens have taken up a controversial solution: fill the homes with families that can’t afford them.
The cause, which critics liken to the “Russian Revolution,” has gained traction as thousands of luxury homes built in the pre-recession real-estate boom tower unoccupied over neighborhoods critically short of affordable housing. According to the study, which was conducted last fall in six New York City neighborhoods and released earlier this month, 4,092 condo units averaging $1,894,201 sit vacant and ready to house low-income families in neighborhoods where the average household income is $35,744. Locals are priced out and, more concerning, it’s unclear if buyers exist who are priced in. In the six neighborhoods studied, unoccupied condos have been on the market for an average of 418 days.
Cerita Parker, a member of Mothers on the Move, tells Planetsave: “It just seems very logical that if these buildings are vacant and they are warehousing them, while we have families living in shelters, living in SROs, these apartments should be taken over by the city through tax foreclosure, like any other building.”
The study found 138 tax delinquent buildings in the six neighborhoods that owe the city a combined total of more than $4 million. That money, if collected, could put 845 families in public housing. It’s a small percentage of the 8,350 homeless families with children in New York City cited by the Department of Homeless Services, but it would be a tremendous start. Instead, the cash isn’t coming in, and the fully constructed properties have remained vacant.
The study concludes with suggestions on how the city could take over wasteful properties — tax foreclosure and eminent domain — and suggests two options for property ownership and operation: public housing and community land trusts.
“New York City and State government officials both have the power to forcibly acquire distressed and financially troubled properties and facilitate their conversion into low-income housing,” Right to the City concludes.
The organization also offers a few less drastic recommendations aimed at Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the New York City Council: Pass Housing Not Warehousing Legislation introduced earlier this year, which establishes an annual census of vacant city property; pass legislation to prevent “warehousers” from achieving 421-A tax exemptions; and pass legislation similar to that passed recently in Boston, forcing condo owners to pay a fee for properties left vacant for over a year.
Photo by Right to the City via People without Homes and Homes without People.