Affordable Housing Finance
January 8, 2014
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has continued his push to create and preserve affordable housing in New York by proposing a $100 million investment in his State of the State address Wednesday.
This follows his announcement at the beginning of 2013 that New York would invest $1 billionto create and preserve 14,300 affordable housing units, the state’s largest housing investment in at least 15 years, to help severely housing-burdened families.
“Affordable housing is a crisis. Homelessness is growing,” said Cuomo during his address. “In 2014, every New Yorker deserves a safe, clean place to live.”
The new investment would create and preserve 3,000 affordable housing units in multifamily developments as well as create an estimated 3,500 construction jobs.
“The additional $100 million investment in affordable housing will not only give 3,000 low-income families the support they need to stabilize their lives and build new homes, but also help drive the economic development necessary to help revitalize local communities,” said Rafael E. Cestero, president and CEO of The Community Preservation Corp., a New York-based nonprofit mortgage lender.
In addition to the affordable housing investment, Cuomo proposed a renters’ tax credit.
In New York, more than 3.3 million households are renters, with many facing severe housing burdens. More than 829,000 low-income renter households spend more than 50 percent of their monthly income on housing costs.
The tax relief would provide renters with incomes less than $100,000 with a refundable personal income tax credit that would increase with family size. The proposal would provide more than $400 million in tax relief for 2.6 million renters.
“With his proposal to create a tax credit for renters with incomes under $100,000, the governor is acknowledging the financial hardship many renters face and the reality that rents are often unaffordable to low- and moderate-income families,” Cestero added.