Local Leaders
Cities and states preserve affordable rentals.
In the absence of significant government spending on housing, cities and states have taken a stronger role in preserving their own housing stock. Here are a few examples of their efforts:
- New York City: In an older program, the Big Apple offers tax abatement to keep owners investing in an asset. “If landlords maintain rent control, they’ll give them a tax break,” says David Cardwell, vice president of capital markets and technology for the National Multi Housing Council.
- Fairfax County, Va.: This locality is so committed to maintaining affordable stock that it will personally foot the bill for housing it deems essential. “They have bought up apartments to keep them affordable,” says Denise Muha, executive director of the National Leased Housing Association.
- Illinois and Rhode Island: These states require owners to notify local government before deregulation, “Notice creates a little more time for everyone to talk,” says Vincent F. O’Donnell, vice president for preservation of Local Initiatives Support Corp. The group, also known as LISC, helps arrange financing that will keep properties. “It gives someone time to put together a better deal and stop the train for three to six months.”
Going, Going, Gone
From 1993 to 2003, the same type of properties kept disappearing from the apartment and single-family rental market: at-risk and inadequate housing. Here are the statistics on housing units that were rentals in 1993, but had been lost by 2003, according to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.Percentage of all apartment and single-family rental units lost: 6.3
- Percentage of one- to four-unit structures lost: 8.1
- Percentage of structures built between 1960 lost: 9.2
- Percentage of one- to four-unit structures that were built before 1960 lost: 9.5
- Percentage of at-risk units lost: 12.4
- Percentage of at-risk and inadequate units lost: 20.2
