$2.9 Billion on Homelessness (New York’s Housing Crisis)

Dive into the heart of New York City's housing crisis. With a 22% job growth and only a 4% increase in housing stock since 2010, we're facing an unprecedented imbalance and a housing dilemma. Discover why rents have soared by 40% since 2019 and explore the New York Housing Compact's missed opportunities. Plus, learn about the latest zoning law changes in NYC, including the shift away from parking minimums and the potential for converting garages into homes. Let’s take an insightful look at NYC's urban living challenges in this video.
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00:00 New York Housing Crisis
01:33 Why we're in a housing crisis? (2 reasons)
04:05 The New York Housing Compact
05:05 Zoning changes in New York
08:52 Homelessness in New York
10:40 More than just affordable housing
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[@UrbanCaffeine]

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[@ExploringFate]

I know it was touch on in this video but I believe the fact that the city is encouraging and essentially saying we'll pay the building cost is great as well. Imagine taking a garage and doubling it up to create a taller small house or mini apartment complex to increase capacity to help.

[@mariusfacktor3597]

Great video! You truly understand the actual root of the problem, unlike so many other commentators who only think about the surface-level stuff. If you don't build enough housing, it doesn't matter how much money you throw at the problem. It will not solve it. Two examples. 1) Houston used the Federal Housing Voucher program to get an astounding 25,000 homeless off the streets and into permanent housing. They could do this because Houston builds an abundance of housing each year. 2) Los Angeles used the Federal Housing Voucher program too, but 94% of the vouchers when unused because there wasn't any available housing and there are still 46,000 homeless people in the city. This happened because Los Angeles has made it illegal to build more housing on almost every parcel of land in the city since the 1970s.

[@cosmichappening1712]

Homelessness and poverty is an industry; but ultimately it is unsustainable.

[@hopel4822]

My current landlord held the apartment for us(without us paying rent) for 3 months before we moved in, as it was right about when the entire world was falling apart in March 2020. It's actually a great apartment with all utilities included, where he hasn't raised the rent in 3 years. And I know we essentially fell a** backwards into this place thanks to the pandemic

[@hhvictor2462]

rent control and rent stabilization plays a big role in the housing shortage, so it's said. Limited profits does not give builders sufficient incentive to build more of the type housing desirable to the masses. Unfortunate for the masses, the money is in building luxury hi rise condos.

[@davinlarson8099]

Also, a single rent stabilized tenant can refuse to move and prevent an entire building from being demolished to be replaced by something larger.

[@moosesandmeese969]

This has been consistently debunked. No, rent control is good. It's terrible zoning policy that's keeping housing from being built

[@davinlarson8099]

@@moosesandmeese969 rent control is the one thing that virtually all economists agree is terrible public policy that exacerbates housing shortages so you end up like Stockholm with a 15 year waitlist for housing. And no it isn’t debunked at all. NYC has headlines about tenants blocking redevelopment all the time.

[@moosesandmeese969]

@@davinlarson8099 Most "economists" are ideologues regurgitating discredited economist Milton Friedman talking points with weak or bogus evidence. You need also reminded that economics is a social science. The myth that rent controls are bad is easily disproven just by looking at Viennese housing policy and average rents there. Rent controls have absolutely no effect on housing supply, unless what you're implying is that you think poor people are taking away housing from "more deserving" people.

[@beanpasteposts]

@@davinlarson8099We wouldn't have to worry about evicting poor tenants as much if we could just build more development in the first place. Zoning laws are definitely the main issue, and everything else is a symptom of it.

[@JuanNunez2023]

Cities like NYC are supposes to be cheaper to live at instead of twice as expensive but the city has done a great diservice by catering to the rich and corporations at the expense of regular New Yorkers. For example, The New York Times has a great article called "How 100,000 Apartments In New York City Disappeared" which is about how small apartments were combined into larger more expensive apartments. Curbed has another article called "When a New High-Rise means Less housing" about new constructions. Less places to live + a population boom since the 1980's = unresonable rent prices.

[@davinlarson8099]

The answer is for the city to update its zoning (largely unchanged since the 1960s) to allow far more housing. Rich people will always get the large units they want. If that means combining multiple adjacent units, they’ll do it. So we should be allowing far more construction to outpace that loss.

[@user-lw3qo2dg2k]

Love your vids so much ❤❤❤❤

[@planningpersonlaidbackdeep1273]

Great summation.

[@jcnot9712]

Hey, I'm also an immigrant (first generation) but I think the migration situation was worth a mention in this video. I get there're a lot of bigoted people who see this topic as an opportunity to spew out hate against others, but that doesn't mean those of us who are less biased against immigrants should just pretend is not happening, whether you actually think it has a big impact or not, which I think it does but I'm subject to changing my mind on this if I see contradicting data.

[@mariusfacktor3597]

America has been urbanizing since before it was founded as a nation. There have been hordes of people immigrating to America, especially NYC, for centuries. Most came with nothing. So this isn't something new. The reason it's becoming problematic is the housing shortage. So although she didn't address it directly, I think the premise of this video wouldn't have changed even if she did.

[@jcnot9712]

@@mariusfacktor3597 you’re acting like it’s a constant influx, geopolitics be damned. There are peaks and valleys to migration, and we’re currently in a peak so it’s natural for it to be more of a factor in the current year.

[@debraallison2765]

Before Neal Simon, some people actually did look in the obituaries for an apartment.

[@Geotpf]

#1 causes #2. IE, in a free market, if there is a shortage of something, prices will increase. The only solution is to build more housing. Row after row of 20, 30, 50 story apartment buildings. That is literally the only solution, other than reducing demand by moving jobs away from NYC in general and Manhattan in particular. Everything else is noise. Make it legal, zoning wise (including things like air rights) to simply cover NYC with hundreds of 50 story apartment buildings until everyone who wants to live there can afford to. Or don't, and have the problem continue, with rents continuing to rise. Easy choice to make.

[@moosesandmeese969]

I agree with you but 20+ story buildings are not ideal. Above 8-10 floors, each additional floor costs more to build which makes the end price of each unit higher. 5-10 stories though is the most cost efficient

[@cicchiamichael]

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 Interesting. I feel for you guys in NYC. 🤔🤔 I do want to live there for one month sometime. I better start saving money now. 😀😀

[@soullfire]

Good video and it's true that most cities haven't kept up with building housing despite population growth. However, you left out some main drivers that now exist that will keep pricing high for the foreseeable future until they are resolved. Unaffordable housing isn't just a NYC problem, it's across the US and goes even beyond borders internationally. Canada, Europe, Australia, etc.., are also feeling the crunch of skyrocketing prices. The difference now is housing has been turning into a commodity that goes to the highest bidders rather than a necessity that must remain affordable. Corporations and hedge funds buy up properties for speculation and rental income. The advent of short term rental apps allow building owners to act like hotels to make more money than they would with longer term leases. Whenever new housing is built, it's dedicated for high rents. The few new places that are deemed affordable have several month long wait lists and long lines for the lucky few that can obtain them. As you know, stabilized rent places in NYC are like gold and in many cases gets passed on as an inheritance because of scarcity. I used to live in NYC as a kid and current prices there now and everywhere are surreal to me and makes it feel like I'm on another planet. It's dystopian that the decision to buy a home even 5 years ago would determine your future housing security. The rents today are more than double and triple my mortgage- crazy! Companies have bought entire tracts of housing developments to create a permanent home rental communities and converting these into income investments sold on Wall Street. I looked it up and the median income for NYC is $67,997 as of 2021 stats. So you know there are people struggling greatly to stay housed. NYC has also cut back of SRO's (single residency units) which makes homelessness worse. Most landlords dislike and try to get out of accepting tenants with housing vouchers as many believe they tend to cause more property damage and are higher risk for eviction. Sorry for the extended post but bottom line is until laws are changed that take these corporate investors out of the housing market, the situation will persist and likely get worse. I've seen sad vids of seniors becoming homeless despite have a good pension and SS income because the rent is just too much. Losing one's job know means a real risk of becoming homeless since even $15-$20 minimum wage jobs may not be enough to cover housing and living expenses. We live in very dystopian times when it comes to housing.

[@davinlarson8099]

Housing has always been a commodity. And those corporations you mentioned literally said themselves that it’s the shortage of housing that makes their investments profitable. The shortage is the root of everything in this.

[@moosesandmeese969]

Housing has always been a commodity, but starting in the 1960s it began to be viewed as an investment that should appreciate in value by any means necessary, whereas prior housing was most often a depreciating asset which tended to keep prices reasonable outside of major shortages like that caused by WW2. The change was spurred by exclusionary zoning policies that deliberately kept housing supply low in order to increase property values, with the added intention of keeping out ethnic minorities. Urban renewal projects also contributed by destroying huge amounts of the housing stock for all the parking lots and highways in our cities. So the solution is to change zoning codes to encourage building so much housing that it reverses that dynamic and makes housing as an investment infeasible. This is actually what Japan did after speculation on housing caused economic downturn and policy was changed to encourage building. It turned housing in Japan back into a depreciating asset and as a result even central Tokyo is relatively affordable. Anecdotally, here in Philadelphia the record number of construction permits granted in the last 2 years caused rent prices to stabilize for the first time since 2010. And just for the record, most of the west has the same problems. Around the same time in the 60s and 70s they also set limits on new housing construction despite growing population, and the results are what we see today. That's not to say other policies like vouchers and rent controls are bad, they're not. They're immensely helpful for preventing displacement due to rising rents. However at the end of the day those can't make up for the severe lack of supply. After all you can't use a housing voucher if you can't find a rental in the first place.

[@Mlogan11]

@@davinlarson8099 There have always been cycles of housing build ups and shortages. However, prices have never hit parabolic pricing like they are now. Entire new home communities are being bought up by investment corporations as income producing assets. That has not existed in the past, and certainly not to this extent. Many news reports show corporations outbidding individual home buyers with all cash deals to pick up properties. The housing crisis is not limited to US, but on an international scale all at the same time. That's further proof that it goes beyond normal cycles of supply and demand.

[@Mlogan11]

@@davinlarson8099 Actually, owning a home historically wasn't seen as an opportunity for short term speculation, but rather a choice of comfort and ensuring your housing costs are fixed. It's only in the modern era that "home flipping" became a thing. Now we have an explosion in the derivatives market where it's easy for housing to be repackaged as investment shares. National and foreign investment firms have strongly entered the market competing with individual home buyers. Housing developments are bought out by these companies before they hit the general market. Apartment buildings there were once low rent are being bought out by these conglomerates and remade into luxury housing. This is not the same old, same old, supply and demand cycles in effect. Prices are soaring internationally. When new supply is being quickly brought up buy investment banks, more must be done than just increase supply. The unnatural demand (hyper investment interest) must be lowered as well.

[@JonathanS89]

great video! very informative and unbiased

[@UrbanCaffeine]

Thanks. I try to be. There are a lot of nuances to topics like this.

[@Sleepy1026]

So do you live on KZbin money? Its pretty expensive here in NY. great video Thea

[@riverskeetr14]

I would like to hear a landlord's opinion of doing business with housing voucher tenants vs non housing voucher tenants

[@abenm613]

Interestingly enough, according to your standards, I have made it in New York, because my Brooklyn apartment allows for washer inside the bathroom (we haven't purchased a dryer yet, but that's a matter of time) and the rent is way below average.

[@UrbanCaffeine]

Lol. Congratulations!🎉

[@12KevinPower]

Housing Huddle!

[@jake79heiser]

Land Value Tax would help reduce all the parking in NYC

[@annaliavalentine5752]

The comments rlly did not get the point… the top comment is literally “and those corporations!!! leaving all those apartments empty!!!”

[@jcnot9712]

0:50 lmao it's funny you used an engineer (one of the go-to high salary examples) as an example here 'cause I'm an engineer in the city who earns less in a year at their entry-level position than what this hypothetical engineer pays in rent 😂

[@cammiluna]

many new york employers only pay minimum wage, though...

[@moosesandmeese969]

Need to build a ton more housing otherwise the problem is just going to keep getting worse, both privately and publicly funded. Urban renewal horror projects destroyed so much of the former housing stock and replaced it with parking lots and highways which began the process of creating this current housing shortage. Bad zoning policy like single family zoning, parking minimums, height restrictions and other bogus has also kept new housing construction artificially low, at the wish of rich property owners who want their property values to rise to the moon and keep out people making less than 6 figures. The city wastes a huge amount of it's space on parking lots, parking garages, and suburban sprawl which is ridiculous.

[@markfinley2486]

This whole video just confirms the fact that I never plan on leaving the suburbs, I have a 4 bedroom house with a four-car garage that is worth about $300,000 that is paid off completely and all I have to do is pay the property taxes on it. To me that's my idea of Heaven

[@doninmichigan]

Pretty much the same here, but problem is, property taxes keep going up and up every year. You can pay off your house, but you can never pay off your property taxes!

[@God7OD]

The top rung of the ladder has been screwing the lower since caveman days

[@user-wi5dc9qp9p]

That's only the down payment. We have more busses coming for your pleasure. And they will expect to be accommodated, after all you're a SANCTUARY CITY. ENJOY!

[@SirHeinzbond]

as long as people pay the prizes, as long as the stay or rise up.... this is for me one of the reasons i do not think capitalism without rules, laws and social programs is worth even considering as some way of worth living it or even trying it...

[@robertlunderwood]

Landlords have learned the hard way to not accept housing vouchers whenever possible. They are afraid of their properties being destroyed. Plus, they have higher eviction rates.

[@moosesandmeese969]

Or maybe because landlords have economic incentive to evict section 8 tenants. There's no evidence that poor people are a burden on landlords, quite the opposite actually

[@mariusfacktor3597]

Best way to get back at landlords is to build an abundance of housing to make an apartment a dime a dozen. US Zoning was invented in NYC in 1917 by landlords who were afraid the new skyscrapers would flood the market with floor space. So the restrictions that prevent more housing from getting built were designed to serve the landlords, not the renters. It's time to undo the laws rigged against us.

[@davinlarson8099]

The city/state also had a voucher program during the Bloomberg years but he had a dispute with the state over funding and the program was abruptly canceled leaving landlords with tenants who had no way to pay.

[@D...M...A...]

When the end of the world happens , I want Thea to break the news to me...

[@SilverJoystix]

New York is always in a crisis

[@JPAGH]

"The White House says funding is available for the NYC to provide housing for eligible asylum seekers families, which includes up to 14,000 vouchers" - CBS News, August 31, 2023 "NYC's daily per-person cost to house migrants climbs to nearly $400. The number of migrants coming to New York City continues to climb, and so too the daily, per-person cost to house and care for them - now $394, up from $363 earlier this year, officials said" - Oct 23, 2023 $400 a day and a housing voucher for an apartment (with electricity, cooking gas, heating, and water for free). It's not so bad to be an asylum seeker.

[@moosesandmeese969]

$400 is the cost to the city, not what asylum seekers get. They get practically nothing. You're deliberately misrepresenting the data to the point of lying. You should be ashamed of yourself

[@collectivelyimprovingtrans2460]

Houses are owned by corporations that don’t want to build affordable homes, so there are vacant apartments the solution of courses to build public housing on parking lots

[@robertlunderwood]

It doesn't cost that much more to build luxury housing vs affordable housing, but affordable housing makes no money. Luxury housing is all builders can afford to build.

[@chorseundgrd]

​@@robertlunderwood Yep. This is the same for single family homes in the suburbs. The "missing middle" exists in the suburbs too because builders make more money on huge homes than they do on smaller, more affordable homes. So of course, they build a ton of giant homes that all look the same. Anything "affordable" is not in the best interest of capitalism. The only solution is government intervention.

[@davinlarson8099]

NYC has the lowest vacancy rate in America. We simply need more housing of any kind.

[@chorseundgrd]

@@davinlarson8099 It's a circular problem. Many people in NYC cannot afford housing at market rate. Builders only make money if they can sell units at or above market rate. There's no profit incentive to build. So it's a standoff.

[@davinlarson8099]

@@chorseundgrd the market rate is determined by the overall availability of housing. Build more and that price goes down. It’s not a circular problem at all. It’s a classic supply shortage like cars during the pandemic. And even expensive market-rate housing reduces displacement in existing housing. All the rich people who move into expensive housing no longer compete with the rest of us for existing units. Those expensive developments still positively impact the entire market.

[@sealand000]

Many large luxury apartments snapped up by the rich, but remaining unoccupied

[@mariusfacktor3597]

The solution is to build so many more apartments that they become a dime a dozen.