Subsidized Housing Still Lacking in NYC

New York, NY —

Subsidized housing for low and middle income New Yorkers is continuing to dwindle, that's according to a recently released report by a local non-profit. WNYC's Cindy Rodriguez reports.

Between 1990 and 2006, the city lost about a quarter of the roughly 120,000 cheap apartments once on the market. These are units owned by private landlords, but rents are paid using government subsidies. The report by the Community Service Society finds the majority of those units were under the state run Mitchell Lama program which offers tax breaks and low interest mortgages in exchange for cheap rents.

Most of the losses occurred after 2001. Analysts who authored the report say a hot real estate market is one of the biggest threats to affordable housing because landlords want out of government programs so they can increase their profits. Housing advocates say the city should offer better incentives to entice landlords to stay in programs. But should also punish those who leave by making them pay higher taxes. For WNYC, I'm Cindy Rodriguez