A co-operative coalition of US organisations is calling on New York’s mayor to dedicate US$3.6bn to the development of affordable co-operative housing in the city.
The coalition, formed in August 2023 following Mayor Eric Adams’ pledge commit $24bn to the development of affordable housing across the city’s five boroughs, is calling for 15% of this money to be spent on creating permanently affordable co-op housing in Manhattan Midtown South, by converting existing vacant office space into homes.
According to coalition member the National Cooperative Bank (NCB), this would address “racial equity disparities in some of the city’s most affluent and segregated neighbourhoods”.
The bank’s president and CEO, Casey Fannon, described converting unoccupied commercial real estate to affordable, shared equity housing as a “win-win for New York City,” adding: “Many residents are displaced from living where they work. By providing access to shared equity, affordable housing, residents will help stabilise the local economy, strengthen the civic infrastructure and anchor populations of workers who pay taxes and plan to stay in NYC.”
In a recent interview with City & State, NCB’s executive vice president and chief policy officer John Holdsclaw said that over a 10-year period, $3.6bn would produce around 20,000 homes, giving around 50,000 residents permanently affordable home ownership. He added, “there’s no way in this country that we’re going to close the racial wealth gap or any wealth gap at all without some component of home ownership being there.”
Other coalition members include the National Cooperative Business Association, Cooperative Development Foundation, Council of New York Cooperatives and Condominiums, Urban Homesteading Assistance Board, Mutualist Society, Inclusiv, 1worker1vote and Amalgamated Bank.
Margy Brown, executive director of the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB), said that share equity and housing co-op models have been a successful form of affordable housing in New York City for over 100 years, adding: “Access to additional housing will advance the working class into the ownership class, anchor essential workers to the communities they serve, and uplift those communities to full and fulfilling civic vitality.”
