Equitable Brooklyn
BROOKLYN IS A GREAT PLACE TO LIVE, AND PEOPLE ALL OVER THE COUNTRY AND THE WORLD KNOW IT!
The borough is now home to approximately 2.7 million people, an increase of more than 231,000 over the last 10 years. Yet the demand for new housing has not been met with new housing creation, leading to increased rents in neighborhoods with good access to jobs and historically lower housing costs. This has left some tenants in fear of displacement and struggling to pay rent. Meanwhile, the ability for homeowners
to maintain their homes, or for tenants to become homeowners, is increasingly out of reach for the average Brooklynite. Public housing residents are also facing difficulties due to decades of disinvestment leading to extreme capital repair needs.
Non-profit organizations also struggle to find and keep their spaces, which may impact their ability to deliver community services. The City does not have a robust financing infrastructure akin to its affordable housing programs for projects such as community centers, youth centers, and settlement houses. Because of this, the creation of new, standalone community facilities lags well behind the creation of new affordable housing. Additionally, much of the existing community facility stock in the borough is aging and in need of major capital investment. A large portion of this existing stock is located within NYCHA developments.
The fact that NYC’s approach to planning is broken only exacerbates these issues. Planning is currently conducted in a piecemeal and transactional fashion that often pits the needs of neighborhoods against each other and opens the door for special interests to influence the process. This has resulted in glaring racial segregation and an inequitable distribution of resources across the city, including affordable housing, economic development opportunities, parkland, and transportation infrastructure. It also excludes NYCHA from meaningful consideration, even when NYCHA developments represent the most significant housing and open space resources in many communities (especially communities of color). Further, local voices are often ignored, and community-driven plans often discarded in the proposals brought forth by the City.
A more affordable borough means more development, and all our neighborhoods need to be part of
the solution. We envision a more equitable Brooklyn, where rents are affordable, the most vulnerable populations are protected from displacement, home ownership is an option, and non-profit organizations are supported. We envision a new planning paradigm that centers local knowledge within a true boroughwide framework and addresses the city’s need for sustainable growth holistically.
POLICY
Develop a Brooklyn-centric set of principles for development. Work with the Brooklyn Delegation of
the City Council and Brooklyn communities to support policies that further affordability, local hiring and workforce commitments, community benefits, and accountability. Leverage the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) and support legislation to implement these principles. Examples may include:
Require permanent affordability on all City-subsidized projects
Where new housing is proposed on public land, require that it be 100% affordable in perpetuity
Support models of collective ownership and shared equity such as Community Land Trusts
Require climate resiliency measures for new construction, especially in areas with high flood risk
Support manufacturing retention
Legalize Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) and ensure they become/ remain affordable
Abolish parking minimums; increase secure bike parking minimums
Implement the Complete Streets model and expand Open Streets
Secure workforce commitments to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in the trades and for commercial tenants
Support legislation at City and State levels that protects low- to moderate-income homeowners (especially homeowners of color) and eliminates predatory speculation and house flipping
Track ULURP applications and encourage developers to engage stakeholders
Support the designation of all of Brooklyn as a Cease & Desist Zone, which would create a no-solicitation registry for homeowners, especially vulnerable seniors, to protect against speculation.
BUDGET
Create a capital fund for small non-profits in communities of color to acquire and renovate offices and community spaces. Use the Borough Hall’s Reso A capital budget to catalyze investment in innovative community facility projects that maximize public benefit. Ensure that any commercial spaces in these projects support local entrepreneurs, targeted to key industries and committed to local employment.
Reform how Borough Hall allocates capital grants. Develop a new set of criteria to score potential projects for funding. This will also require advocacy for broader changes because the existing City rules around
the capital budget process, and the way the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget interprets those rules, significantly disadvantages the types of community facility projects that we feel should be supported. Suggested criteria for evaluation/advocacy include:
• Nonprofit ownership and control
• Critical need for funding, i.e. the project’s feasibility relies on BP support • Community input in planning and design (for new projects)
• Demonstrated impact within community (for existing projects)
people served
people employed
programs facilitated
grants leveraged
hours open to community
Meets an underserved need geographically.
Create a publicly accessible database of funded capital projects. The public has a right to know how their money is being spent and developing such a site would demonstrate a commitment to transparency.
Support mission-driven and faith-based partnerships to further affordable housing development.
Programs
Create a Comprehensive Plan for Brooklyn. The Comprehensive Plan should be data-driven, incorporate the Brooklyn-centric development principles noted above, and should ensure that the benefits and burdens of growth are distributed fairly and that resource allocation is based on need, rather than traded with communities in exchange for rezoning approvals. The north star of this plan should be equity, focusing on reducing the racial and economic disparities existing across the borough, especially in relation to public health and the related social determinants of health that impact Brooklynites’ day-to-day lives.
Rezoning proposals would be complementary to this goal; they would not be the primary focus. The process should include an intentional focus on underrepresented communities including public housing, especially with respect to resident engagement. By centering public heath, the plan could begin to move the power dynamic away from real estate interests and towards communities. It is also an opportunity to conduct public education around land use.
Hire a staff person dedicated to public housing to ensure that Brooklyn’s most vulnerable communities are getting the attention they deserve.
Advocacy
Demand real affordability in new residential projects. The need in our communities goes beyond what can currently be provided through Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) and existing financing programs through the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD).
Advocate for full funding of NYCHA’s capital needs from government sources.
Advocate for City investment in housing counseling and legal services. With the expiration of the pandemic-
related eviction moratorium, the need for tenant legal services is high.
Call for updated rules regarding City and non-City capital budget allocations. Decisions about what projects are and are not funded are usually made behind closed doors with little accountability. Advocate for a public and understandable metric for capital funding that prioritizes need, as well as community input and impact.
Advocate for more permanent housing with on-site supportive services for populations experiencing homelessness, including homeless youth, youth aging out of foster care, and people with disabilities, substance use disorders, mental health conditions, and chronic illness including HIV/AIDS.